Master of Public Administration (MPA) alumni face increasingly diverse and global professional expectations. Public affairs specialists generally go on to manage complex partnerships that involve a wide array of participants. Public administration education ought to do its part to ensure these graduates succeed. In this sense, we offer comparative…

There is limited empirical study that examines effective evaluation pedagogy on evaluation competency outcomes. The purposes of this article are to: (1) identify key course design features critical to integrating real-world projects in a course-based service-learning model; and (2) provide empirical data using mixed-methods evaluation to assess…

The academic practitioner divide and strategies to close that gap have been important lines of inquiry in the fields of public administration and public affairs. This study contributes to that significant body of work by reporting results from two surveys of faculty in NASPAA accredited programs and of practitioners affiliated with the…

The widening cracks in the foundations of American democracy are leading to appeals for higher educational institutions generally, and public affairs programs specifically, to offer more courses on civil discourse. In this paper, we conduct a curriculum scan to evaluate the extent to which public affairs programs have answered these calls at the…

Despite Minnowbrook's call in 1968, social equity has been slow to be incorporated into public administration scholarship, teaching, and practice. However, recently, more organizations have promoted a social equity lens in their missions, strategic plans, budgets, hiring decisions, programs, and policies. As a pillar of public administration, this…

Computer-based simulations in public affairs curricula are thought to better prepare graduates for responding to an increasingly complex public policy environment upon entering into or advancing within public sector careers. Using survey results from 221 participants in the 2021 NASPAA-Batten Pandemic 2.0 simulation competition, the authors…

In this dissertation, I quantify the impact of uncertainty on schooling postsecondary choices, study the returns to higher education degrees, and analyze the effects of policies that intend to reduce college education costs. In the second and third chapters, I employ structural Roy models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth…

Debates about trade-offs among values are central to the field of public administration and to graduate education in public affairs. Accreditation guidelines from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) direct graduate programs to articulate the public service values that guide their curricula. Moreover,…

The research explores why some public affairs graduate programs choose to develop fully online degree offerings while others do not. The study attempts to address questions surrounding how different institutions and programs are pursuing degree offerings and the potential influence of faculty workload. The research utilizes a quantitative,…

This article investigates transformations in public service education over the past 50 years, specifically: How have organizational forms evolved, and what lessons can we draw from that evolution? The organizational form construct originates in population ecology theory. We draw from a variety of evidentiary sources in answering the research…

Globally, public affairs programs are designed to meet dual educational purposes. On the one hand, these professional degree programs are intended to educate students for careers in service to the public. On the other hand, these programs are also intended to educate students about our common responsibility to contribute to the betterment of…

Teaching workplace communication is vitally important as we expect public servants to have the skills to draft, review, and revise written communication materials. Less explicitly demanded, and more often implicitly expected, we assume public servants know how to respond to individuals with empathy while also meeting technical obligations, such as…

Communication is a critical government function that has important implications for public administration and effective governance. This research study explores how communication competencies are taught in public affairs programs in the United States. Based on a general web content analysis of graduate programs, and specific analyses of course…

This article compares the hireability of doctoral graduates of online and traditional public affairs programs in the United States. In this context, "hireability" refers to the measure of how likely it is that someone may be hired. There has been an expansion in the number of awarded doctoral degrees, particularly through online degree…

Extant research has demonstrated a positive effect of ethics education in public affairs and administration programs, yet the same suggests the lack of a unifying framework for teaching ethics in the discipline. Since the ratification of the 2013 revised ASPA Code of Ethics, scholars have called for NASPAA programs to incorporate the Code in their…