January 27 - May 19, 2003
BARUCH COLLEGE
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
PAF 9172 M6, Research And Analysis II (
ENR 1882)
Spring 2003
Monday, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
VC 9180
April 16, 2020 Update
Mail: Baruch College – CUNY Professor: Dan Williams, Ph.D.
Office: Room 410
135 East 22 nd St.
School of Public Affairs
Box C-301
Phone:
E-mail:
212-802-5983
Daniel_Williams@baruch.cuny.edu
One Bernard Baruch Way
New York, NY 10010
Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday 3-5:30. Exceptions posted at my door.
Web bio: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/spa/FACULTY/index.htm
Web Site: http://bcln-out.baruch.cuny.edu/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_1607_1
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This is the second of two course concerning conducting empirical research for public affairs. It is widely accepted that new knowledge is found through empirical research. This course emphasizes practices that are general among the social sciences: guidelines for summarizing observations, drawing general conclusions from particular cases (know as “induction”), and deciding when two events are causally related. Because of various observational limits for differing kinds of phenomena, the sciences use differing specific techniques. A portion of this course explores the variety of techniques available for research. In this second course, focus is on more sophisticated techniques for data analysis and on more developed approaches to design.
Prerequisite: Computer competency, and PAF 9170. You are encouraged to complete the CIS
8000 computer course before this course. You may need sophisticated Excel skills. It is assumed that you have a working knowledge of SPSS.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
In this course you will learn how to conduct research including performing statistical procedures that contribute towards empirical research for public affairs.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:
David S. Moore and George P. McCabe, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics , 4th Ed., New
York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 2003. ( Includes student SPSS and supplemental manuals as discussed below. If you buy a used book, or to use an alternate source, please verify that you have SPSS, which is required for this course!
)
David de Vaus, Research Design in Social Research , Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications, 2001
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Daniel W. Williams. Forecasting Methods for Serial Data The Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration , edited by Gerald Miller and Marcia Lynn Whicker, New York,
Marcel Dekker, October, 1998, 301-352. ( reprint supplied in class ).
Miscellaneous handouts for use during the semester.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS:
Mildred L. Patten, Proposing Empirical Research , Los Angeles, CA, Pyrczak Publishing, 2000.
Fred Pyrczak and Randall R. Bruce, Writing Empirical Research Reports , 3 rd
Ed., Los Angeles,
CA, Pyrczak Publishing, 2000.
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTBOOKS:
Paul L. Stephenson, et. al., SPSS Manual for Moore and McCabe’s Introduction to the Practice of Statistics , 4th Ed., New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 2003.
Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments , 3 rd
Ed., Indianapolis, Hackett, 2001.
Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual , 3 rd Ed., New York, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS:
You will install student SPSS on your computer. There will be some BCLN support for this course. You may need to use Excel with some assignments. You will be expected to combine output from SPSS and spreadsheets into word processing files . I am prepared to assist you with this requirement using Microsoft products (Word, Excel) and to receive files electronically in
Word . Other spreadsheets and word processing software are not supported .
WEB: You may want to use web material at http://www.whfreeman.com/ips/ .
Students who have not taken PAF 9170 from the current professor in this academic year should obtain a copy of the PAF 9170 syllabus and discuss preparation with the professor.
A
LL READING SHOULD BE COMPLETED
BEFORE
THE SESSION FOR WHICH IT IS ASSIGNED
!
Bring texts to class on any day for which they are assigned!
If you have difficulty with the material, you should complete one or two of the odd numbered homework questions at the end of the section where you have difficulty. Select computational questions under most circumstances. You can compare your results with those at the end of the book, to better gauge the source of your difficulties.
I am available to assist you during my office hours. If you are unable to come during my office hours, I may be able to schedule an appointment in the evening. If several students need assistance at the same time, I may schedule a group appointment.
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COURSE OVERVIEW:
Course Introduction and Review of PAF 9170
Date/Session
1/27/03 01
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 3 and section 2.5
David de Vaus, Chapters 1 through 3
Overview of a complete research proposal using secondary data. Review of hypothesis testing and t tests.
[Moore and McCabe, Chapters 1, 3 through 8]
[Assignment of project]
Date/Session
2/03/03 02
Experimental Design
David de Vaus, Chapters 4 through 6
Moore and McCabe Chapters 6 and 7 (review, only)
Date/Session
2/10/03 03
Cross-Tabs and
 2
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 2 Section 2.6, Chapter 9
Stephenson, et. al.
, Chapter 9
NO Class on 2/17
Date/Session
2/24/03 04
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 12
Stephenson,
ANOVA et. al.
, Chapter 12
Date/Session
3/3/03 05
Two Way ANOVA
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 13
Stephenson, et. al.
, Chapter 13
Date/Session
3/10/03 06
Cross-Sectional Design
David de Vaus, Chapter 10 through 12
Date/Session
3/17/03 07
Midterm
Date/Session
3/24/03 08
Correlation, Descriptive Regression and Diagnostics
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 2
Stephenson, et. al.
, Chapter 2
Date/Session
Simple Linear Regression
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 10
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3/31/03 09 Stephenson, et. al.
, Chapter 10
Date/Session
4/7/03 10
Multiple Regression, the basics
Moore and McCabe, Chapter 11
Stephenson, et. al.
, Chapter 11
Multiple Regression, Binomial Variables and Tweaks
Date/Session
4/14/03 11
Handouts provided by the professor.
4/21 spring break
Date/Session
4/28/03 12
Longitudinal Design
David de Vaus, Chapters 7 through 9
Date/Session
5/5/03 13
Longitudinal Methods
Williams, reprint
Take home final exam
David de Vaus, Chapter 13 through 15
Paper Due
Case Design
Date/Session
5/12/03 14
5/19/03
Final Exam Date: Research project due at the professor’s office at
6 p.m.
Assignments & Grading
Assignments are specified in the following chart. Assignment weights are specified by the points shown in the second column. Assignment requirements will be discussed in class.
Assignment
First Midterm
Exam
Research Project
Exercises
Points
35
35
35
5
Points will be converted to a total grade based on 100 available points and Baruch’s published grade scale (in the following table). Grades falling on the boundary will be resolved to the higher grade; lower grades will not be rounded up. You can check your grade at any time by visiting the Blackboard site for the class and using the “check my grade” feature. Your grade is
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the total points received divided by the points so far available times 100. If, for any reason, total points are adjusted, your final grade is total points received divided by total points available.
Percent to Letter Grade Chart
Percent Boundaries
Lower Higher Grade
80
77
73
70
0
93
90
87
83
100
93
90
87
83
80
77
73
70
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
F
Boundary percents are given the higher letter grade. Grades are not rounded
Course Requirements
Attendance: I have found that attendance at class at the beginning of the class session significantly affects success in this course. For this reason, attendance will be taken at 6:10 for the first TWO weeks and at 6:00 thereafter. Students who are not present at that time for 4 or more occasions will have a maximum POSSIBLE grade of B , regardless of grade points. At my own discretion, I may waive this requirement if attendance is satisfactory.
Exercises: During this semester you may earn 5 points through exercises. Each exercise will be graded “1” for satisfactory or “0” otherwise. Exercises may be selected from “practice” discussed in class or from the Moore and McCabe book section. You are graded on completion, not success. Following are restrictions on exercises:

Only one exercise may be submitted for any one week.

Only current exercises will be considered.

No more than 3 grade points will be assigned for exercises from sessions before the midterm.

No more than 3 grade points will be assigned for exercises from sessions after the midterm.

Exercises from the book should: o Involve multiple parts and be completed for all parts. o Involve using a dataset supplied by the book to obtain a result with SPSS. o Be correct (select only exercises for which answers are given). o Be submitted with supporting material to show they were done.

Exercises from class practice should: o Be completed in all parts. o Be completed using “your data” (from the first semester) or an alternate dataset
(on the class web site).
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
You may submit as many exercises as these restrictions allow until you have 3 grade points in either half of the course or 5 total grade points, but some sessions will not include material appropriate for exercises.
Exercises are important for your understanding. You should do exercises even when you have the grade points and cannot submit them for credit. Frequently, students who do well on the exercises also do well on the tests. IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY WITH THE EXERCISES,
YOU SHOULD SEE ME IN MY OFFICE.
Midterms/Final: This course includes an in-class mid-term and a take home final. The midterm may include a take home question. The take home final is likely to be in the form of a word problem that asks you to decide what skills to apply and to apply them. At my discretion, there
MAY be a follow-up to the midterm providing an opportunity to improve your mid-term results.
Research Project:
At the end of the semester, the you will submit a research paper (at the last regular class session).
The research paper MUST reflect the use of secondary data. BECAUSE OF FEDERAL
REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF PRIMARY DATA ON HUMAN
SUBJECTS, STUDENTS MAY NOT CONDUCT PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION. (If you work at an institution that has an Institutional Review Board and can provide proof of your IRB’s approval, within the first 5 weeks of the semester, I will consider allowing primary data collection.) Students wishing to receive guidance or assistance for this paper should complete a proposal (following the guidelines required in the first semester, but also reflecting expanded awareness of research design and statistical concepts) by the fifth week of the semester . The student is not required to pursue the first semester proposal. The proposal is NOT graded, and the student will NOT receive a grade penalty for failing to submit a proposal ( except that failing to write one is probably a bad idea ). The absence of a proposal will affect consideration for due date extensions at the end of the semester. Comments on a proposal or preliminary work do not constitute a promise of a grade. A final version is due at the last session.
Tardy work, Incompletes, etc.: All work is due at the assigned time . Work turned in after the due date will not be graded. For take home tests or the paper, any request for a time extension must be made before it is due. Requests made even a short while after the due time will NOT be granted . For the paper, a time extension of reasonable length may be granted if:
(1) through prior contact with the professor the student has shown that s/he has been working on the paper since early in the semester and is making progress, and (2) the request is made prior to the time the paper is due. Time extensions beyond the due date of the final exam will be recorded as an incomplete. Regardless of other factors, students with a cumulative grade below 50 percent of total course points will not be eligible for an incomplete.
GRADES
Guidelines for exercises are above. During the semester, the exercise grade in the online grade book will be reported cumulatively. No exercises will be accepted late.
Students are encouraged to review their returned assignments within the week after it is returned and to
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identify any exceptions they have to the grade.
Grade exceptions not brought to the professor’s attention by the next class session will not be considered.
Grade weights for components of tests will be shown on the test. If no weights are shown or announced at the beginning of the test, the components are equally weighted.
Grading is based on quality of understanding of course specific content and skills as demonstrated in discussion, submissions and other aspects of student performance.
Scholarly Sources
In this course it is appropriate to support your assertions with citation of scholarly sources. In general, scholarly sources are academic journals or academic books. Usually scholarly sources means “peer reviewed” sources, which topic is discussed in PAF 9170. Also, for certain uses, material must be both peer reviewed and empirical. For practical purposes, “empirical” means that procedures similar to those you are learning in this course were used in the research reported in the article you are reading. For your semester project, you should be cautious of addressing a topic for which you cannot find scholarly sources including academic sources. Citations should follow a APA style as demonstrated in the A Pocket Style Manual .
WRITING EXPECTATIONS
All written work should comply with the guidelines in the APA style manual. Citations should be fully compliant with these guidelines. Quality of written expression (particularly conciseness, grammar and spelling) is considered in grading assignments.
All writing in this course must conform to standard written English, reflect appropriate citations, and follow in a logical fashion. For guidelines regarding citation of original sources, see any version of the APA style guide. A brief version is found in the optional text A Pocket Style
Manual . APA style guides are also available in the library and at most bookstores, and can be found at http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/apa_index.htm
. For guidelines concerning logical development of ideas see the text A Rulebook for Arguments , students may also want to consider material at http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/ . Where relevant, written material must be persuasive.
Typed Work : All work prepared outside of class should be typed, double spaced using standard type size, such as Times New Roman 12 point . All handwritten work (in class) should be legible. In general, mathematical assignments should be completed in Excel or SPSS.
If I cannot read your work, I will return it to you ungraded and may provide you an opportunity to resubmit it at partial credit .
INTERNET
A portion of this course may be conducted online.
Where you need specific information or assistance from me, please contact me at the office, through email, or by phone. Email is likely to get the quickest response. If you do not have an email account you can obtain one from the Baruch web site.
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Do not fax material to me without my prior agreement.
Where appropriate, material may be posted to your digital drop box on the web site.
All email attachments and Internet postings must be evaluated with appropriate current virus protection software prior to posting or attaching. In addition, due to the dynamic nature of recent developments in Internet passed computer viruses, you should obtain permission before sending email with attachments to me or another student.
To successfully complete this course, you should be able to use a word processor and have access to the Internet. All posted papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word format.
Supplemental materials should be compatible with other Microsoft products (Excel, Power
Point). Students should request prior approval before submitting non-Microsoft formatted matter. Material not formatted for the particular software mentioned in this syllabus will be considered not submitted if the professor is unable to access it due to software incompatibility.
Some software that advertises itself as compatible is only partly compatible.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Students are advised to obtain a copy of Baruch policies on academic honesty. All work submitted for a grade must be the student’s own work
. Where classroom instruction or this syllabus authorizes students to receive assistance from other students, the student submitting work must perform a substantial part of the submitted work . Students submitting work completed in groups must have participated in group activities. (It is unlikely that group work will be assigned in this course.)
Students may seek assistance or work in groups for exercises. However, the submitted work should be completed by the student submitting it. This means that the student should work stepby-step through the entire problem, not just save a spreadsheet, SPSS output or any other electronic file to a different file name. Tests must be completed solely by the student submitting the work, without assistance. Providing prohibited assistance will be considered the same as receiving prohibited assistance.
Students submitting material previously or concurrently submitted for a grade in any other course, whether at Baruch or elsewhere, should reveal this fact using footnotes. If this material constitutes more that a small portion of your submission, you should alert me to the nature of this material and obtain permission before including the material. If you are submitting this material concurrently in another course, you should also obtain permission from the other faculty member and advise me when this permission is granted.
Students leaving class during a test without the professor’s or test monitor’s permission will not be allowed to complete the test. The test will be graded based on work completed before leaving the class. Students arriving for tests after the departure of other students will not be allowed to take tests. Make up tests may differ significantly from original tests.
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All quotations and significant paraphrases should be properly cited using APA citation guidelines. Work not reflecting appropriate citation will not receive a passing grade. The professor will judge whether citation omissions are poor scholarship (receiving an F grade for the assignment) or excessive (reflecting a failure to acknowledge sources, and thus subject to the next paragraph).
Submission of work not in compliance with the foregoing requirements and/or not in compliance with any other substantial portion of Baruch College’s academic honesty guidelines will result in receiving an F for the entire course.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Baruch College provides reasonable accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities to ensure that no student with a disability is denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, or otherwise subjected to discrimination under the education program or activity operated by the College because of the absence of educational auxiliary aids for students with disabilities. Arrangements for adapting class procedures without compromising course content and standards may take time. Therefore, students who require accommodations or modifications should speak with me as soon as possible.
I am available for you to talk with me before or after this class or during my office hours, which are shown at the beginning of this syllabus, in the Administration building, 135 East 22 nd
St.,
Room 410.
In order to receive services, you must register with the Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities. Documentation is necessary for every disability. For more information concerning services for students with disabilities, please contact the Barbara Sirois, Director of the Office of
Services for Students with Disabilities, Vertical Campus Building, One Barnard Baruch Way, 2 nd floor, Room 270, phone number 646-312-4590.
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