Students will prepare a 7-10-minute narrated presentation on any topic we covered during the semester. Students may use Adobe Create, PowerPoint, or the Panopto application within Blackboard (https://support.panopto.com/s/ or https://softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/Pf0hitXQmpqxaF/html). For the presentation you should imagine yourself as a subject-matter expert (SME) working for a local criminal justice agency such as the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) or the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections (LMDC), or a school district (JCPS). As the SME you will present a funding proposal for an issue of your choosing. You should include 8-10 references in your presentation. Academic publications such as peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, and non-governmental agency (NGO’s) are the preferred sources for informing your project. You may not use any presentation and/or paper from another class for this assignment. If you use a presentation from a previous UofL course, you will receive a grade of 0 for the assignment. The rubric for this assignment can be found on our course Blackboard site. Based on our course readings and your own research, your presentation should address the following:
1. Choose a topic.
2. Frame the issue and understand the problem.
Thoroughly research the issue and narrow down the focus so that it is manageable.
Write about the background of the issues you choose, describing the scope of the problem to justify the need for government policy action.
Be sure to address any previous policy actions taken on the matter.
Your report should also discuss the possible consequences for failure to act.
3. Select criteria for comparison
Specify appropriate criteria which you will use to compare policy proposals.
The criteria should involve policy goals or positive outcomes that improve the problem under study.
Examples of outcomes include economic benefits, reduced costs for taxpayers, improved police-community relations, improved measures of police transparency and accountability, crime reduction, improved public safety, etc.
4. Identify potential solutions.
Specify two or more policy solutions for your topic.
These solutions should consist of specific action that could be taken by a legislative or executive body, rather than vague social changes that are beyond the scope of government policy makers.
Compare the competing proposals, describing how and to what extent each proposal addresses the problem, based on the criteria specified in Step 2.
Comparison and analysis of policy alternatives will form the main body of your policy report.
An effective paper should consider the immediate and long-term effects of the policy proposals.
Consider not only the policy merits, such as the costs and benefits of each alternative, but political factors as well.
Policymaking occurs in an inherently political environment, so be sure to discuss the interest groups and stakeholders that could be affected–positively or negatively–by policy.
5. Make recommendations
Recommend an action for policy makers to take, using empirical evidence from your analysis for support.
Make sure that all relevant criteria for your suggestions are properly outlined and that you include strategies for implementation and evaluation of your recommendations.
Additionally, address the limitations of your suggestions and identify possible unanticipated outcomes.
6. Summarize the content of your report
This section should be a concise summary of the report, briefly describing the issue or problem, and highlighting the recommended policy action.
