Criminal justice policies are always a delicate balance between personal liberty and the desire to reduce crime.

(1) Select and analyze an example of a criminal justice policy that comes in conflict with constitutional protections.  What is the conflict?  How should it be resolved?

I live in Indiana-
Think of your local community. What health-related issue currently affects a large number of people within your community? How could research help address this issue? How would you go about obtaining more data on the health-related issue you identified?

This is an opportunity for you to explore the practical application of how to create a plan to obtain data on a health-related topic, specifically in your community. Please respond in first person, share personal experiences, and ask questions to further develop your understanding of how evidence-based practice can affect health-related issues at the community level.

You may find the following resources helpful as you prepare to respond to this weeks discussion:

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) – National and state data sets as well as statistic reports. Information about ordering data sets that cannot be downloaded.
CDC Data and Statistics page – much more than NCHS
CDC WONDER – WONDER provides a single point of access to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Data and Surveys
Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) – Data dictionaries, documentation and request forms. No searchable data online.
U.S. Census Bureau, Current census data including information broken down by state, city, and region.
WHOSIS — WHO Statistical Information System

Job task analysis has come a long way.  From so called “efficiency experts” to modern analytic methods.  Tell us how you would assess the development of a new job. Tell us the title, basic job responsibilities and most importantly the characteristics that an ideal candidate for the job would possess. Then tell us how you came to conceptualize the job and the ideal candidate.

no references needed

Complete a case study on an early career teacher and your own mentoring/coaching practice. The final submission includes the following pieces:
1.    Description of your mentee and the teaching context including location, type of school (Public Elementary School), grade level (3rd grade bilingual) and content taught (reading lesson),  years of teaching experience (this is her first year) and previous preparation program.
o    Do not use names or locations in this description; provide pseudonyms for your mentee and the location/school
2.    Summary of a pre-conference discussion held with your mentee that addresses the following:
o    Focus of lesson to be observed
o    Nature of feedback desired by the mentee:
o    On what area of practice would your mentee like you to focus? (e.g., classroom management, critical thinking questions)
o    What feedback would your mentee like to receive from you? (e.g., areas where an opportunity was missed to positively redirect behavior, ideas for rewording questions)
3.    Observation data collected: This might be field notes, a checklist observing particular behaviors, etc. Include the tool you used and the notes generated as a result.
4.    Debriefing conference summary and analysis that addressed the following:
o    Logistics:
o    When did you meet and for how long? (Was it right after the observation, several days later, etc.)
o    What was the teachers attitude and demeanor? Yours?
o    How did you introduce the purpose and focus of the conversation?
o    Did you take a facilitative or directive approach? Why?
o    What positive feedback did you provide to the teacher? How was it received?
o    What constructive criticism did you offer and how was it received?
5.    Reflection:
o    Reflect on the experience and the process. What went well with the process of engaging in a pre-conference, observation, and post-conference? What would you do differently next time?
o    What impact do you believe this mentoring experience had on your mentee? Why do you think so? How did this experience impact you personally?
o    What goals do you have for your mentoring practice as a result of this case study?
The case study must be APA-style, 5-part paper (identify each section of the paper as you address it) and include any necessary support materials as an appendix in the paper. This final project must be 5 pages.
Support your statements with evidence from your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.

In this project, you will search for information that will enable you to identify three top trends in your profession or field. Over the course of the project, you will exercise information literacy skills as you locate and evaluate information, and develop well-reasoned conclusions. Reviewing the many sources available to you, you will choose those that are relevant, timely, and helpful to your quest to understand the issues of your industry. Once you have identified the top trends, you will choose one that is particularly interesting to you or one that you think is the most problematic, and research more deeply to produce an analytical research paper for your team. Your project is intended to prepare the search committee on the issue so that it is well-prepared to interview candidates. This project will prepare you for more complex research projects, as you will refine and hone your ability to create a statement of the problem and find the information you need to produce a well-reasoned, well-supported analysis.

There are three steps that will lead you through this project.

Step 1: Conduct Research to Identify Top Trends
In this step, you will refine your ability to conduct research for information in academic, public, and web domains. This project will require two different kinds of searches. First, you will perform a brief industry analysis to become more knowledgeable about your industry and how it is classified in national databases. From this initial research, you will learn the codes associated with your industry and you will learn where to find and use business research resources. This should enable you to find more specific search terms to help you find the resources that will help you identify the top trends in your industry. Once you have identified the top trends, you will choose an issue in one of the three top trends and conduct more research to provide an analysis of the issue, its effect on the industry, and how an organization would address this issue whether to mitigate or to promote to its own advantage.

Step 2: Choose an Issue to Research Further
In the last step, you used research to identify three top trends in your industry. That was the first part of the project. Now it is time to focus on an issue within one of those trends that you think is noteworthy in your field. This project requires that you review the trends and develop a plan to research the issue further, and synthesize the information you find into a coherent, well-supported analysis. But first, you have to develop a focused research question or statement of the problem. Consider this step similar to the starting point for solving any problem with the scientific method. You first have to identify the problem. Then, when you have researched a bit more, you will form a reasonable assumption (a hypothesis) of what you think might be a potential resolution/answer. You will look for more information that reflects different sides or viewpoints of the issue, and use analytical thinking to arrive at a well-reasoned conclusion. This conclusion may or may not bear out your original first estimate; however, your quest is to arrive at an answer that is well-supported and based on facts. Remember, your objective is to consider the impact of this issue on your industry, so this may be the first step toward a practical solution for your organization.
So, choose an issue from your research on a trend in your industry that has potential for great impact on the field, and then draft a preliminary question or statement of the problem. Your research should reveal if the question has already been answered, or if there is enough information on the topic. Refine your question or statement and submit it to the so what test. Will your answer contribute to knowledge about the issue you have selected? Is the question answerable? Remember that in academic work you would normally avoid normative or open-ended questions, which start with the words should or would, or any question that can be answered with a yes or a no.
Once you have chosen your issue and completed enough research to provide a well-reasoned answer (or solution), you will be ready to write your issue paper. In the next step, you will draft your research paper.

Step3: Write your paper

Your paper will be 5-7 pages, not including your cover page and References page(s), double-spaced, and set up in APA standards. It does not require an abstract.
Your citations, both “in text” and in References, will be in accordance with the APA Style Manual Sixth Edition. You may also find this sample APA paper helpful.
Your headings will follow this general pattern:
Paper Title (First level position, not bold)
Findings (First level heading, centered, bold)
Top Trends of the _____ Industry (Second level heading, bold, flush left)
An important emerging issue in a trend (and what it means in context to the industry) (Second level heading, bold, flush left)
Conclusions (First level heading, centered, bold)
References (New page, first level position, not bold)

MILESTONE: Many students are asked to resubmit their papers based on incomplete or inaccurate citation formats. This milestone will get you off to a good start with APA citations and enable your instructor to check your trends to make sure that you are off to a good start. By the end of Week 2, submit a shell of your paper with the following elements:

a cover sheet in good APA format;
a “template” for your paper that includes the headings;
your opening paragraph that will introduce the industry, the top trends, the issue that you have chosen, and the question that you pose to answer; and,
your draft References page.

Use the APA style guide or APA examples to draft your complete citations.

Select an international business to research and apply theories and material discussed in lectures and from textbook.  Student should provide personal insight as to why/why not this company is successful/unsuccessful, relating it to textbook theories, topics, and other classroom information (i.e. organizational structure, marketing plan, culture, human resources, how did the company originate into the international market, problems faced, etc.).

In this project, you will write a short essay that reflects your belief or passion about a particular part of your professional experience. This project will help you refresh your writing skills to prepare for the rest of your graduate program. Organizing complex and divergent thoughts to write a single page requires prewriting, perhaps an outline, and thinking about the mechanics of writing an essay paragraph by paragraph. That means starting with a topic sentence, adding supporting sentences, and concluding with a sentence that provides a bridge to the next paragraph. Your essay is intentionally limited to 500 words to engage you in the structural process of writing.