Courses

Community members and stakeholders, or those who are directly involved in delivering or receiving a program’s services, are often left out of the program evaluation process. This course explores how involving participants in program evaluation can create a learning community...

This course provides a general introduction to and overview of the financial management practices and problems of nonprofit organizations. Specific topics will include financial accounting, budgeting/resource allocation, cost containment and retrenchment, and strategy...

What does it take to achieve policy change in public education? In this module, we will study how and why education policy shifts (or doesn't) by looking at examples at the federal and state levels. We will explore and test a classic political science framework (John Kingdon...

This project-based course supports students in designing a sustainable educational enterprise. Over the course of the semester, participants develop a viable education venture to improve educational opportunity. The course involves a series of activities and experiential...

*Lottery-Based Enrollment* The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the role and impact of state governments in setting and implementing K-12 education policy in the United States, with a focus on major issues that affect instructional practice and student...

Created by Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot four decades ago, portraiture is a method of social science inquiry distinctive in its blending of art and science, aesthetics and empiricism. This seminar illuminates the origins, purposes, and features of this method, placing it...

Most policy changes—in education as in every other field-- do not work as intended. Human behavior is complex; it is just too hard to anticipate whether students, parents and teachers will react in the intended way. Thus, policymakers must recognize opportunities to learn...

How do we build programs that don’t just serve youth—but heal, inspire, and liberate them? This course is a laboratory for designing programs that center youth voices, build cultural belonging, and promote individual and collective healing. Students will draw from...

This course provides students with an introduction to how economists think about the role and value of education within the broader society, with a special emphasis on issues of racial inequality seen through an economic lens. Understanding education through this lens is...

Post-secondary institutions are not only an important part of our broader society, but they also function as a microcosm of society – with their own internal hierarchies, bureaucracies, rules, and procedures. But not every institution is treated the same under the law or...

This course is designed to provide an overview to legal issues impacting K-12 education in the United States. We will begin by learning how the legal system works, generally, and how to navigate legal tools, e.g., cases, statutes, regulations. We will then begin to address...

This course will address several areas of disability law, including physical accessibility, digital accessibility, service animals and emotional support animals, the process to request and receive accommodations, and other related areas. Note that this course is designed to...