Quantitative Methods for Public Policy

什么是量化素养？你是怎么教的？你如何衡量它？你怎样才能开发出一个项目，确保所有本科生在毕业时都能拥有它？麦卡莱斯特学院的教师们，以及卡尔顿、格林内尔、劳伦斯和圣奥拉夫的同事们，正在深入思考这些问题，并正在测试一个概念。一个试点方案正在马卡莱斯特进行，改善中学后教育基金资助了一个为期四年的项目，以发展、实施和评估这一模式的推广，并开始向其他机构推广。国家科学基金会的项目是对FIPSE项目的补充，它为额外的研讨会活动、学生项目和作业的准备以及网站和专业小册子的开发提供支持。部分资金将提供给测试马卡莱斯特模式的机构。这个项目是跨学科的。试点学年的课程包括数学、统计学、经济学、政治学、地理学和英语。它也是有凝聚力的。重点是公共政策，所有课程都使用相同的政策问题来说明应用程序。所有学生每周都有一个晚上聚在一起，听专家们讨论政策问题，并谈论他们自己在分析选项时使用的定量方法。然而，政策主题每年都在变化。虽然某些核心课程每年都会参加，但其他院系只在主题特别相关时才参加。这是一种引入数量较少的部门的机制。从政策分析的角度看待定量方法有可能成为学生的强大动力，在学生认为重要的背景下展示定量方法的力量。

What is Quantitative Literacy? How do you teach it? How do you measure it? How can you develop a program that will ensure that all undergraduates have it by the time they graduate? Faculty from Macalester College, joined by colleagues from Carleton, Grinnell, Lawrence, and St. Olaf, are thinking deeply about these questions and are testing a concept. A pilot program is running at Macalester and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) has funded a four-year project to develop, implement, and assess an extension of this model and to begin to disseminate it to other institutions. The NSF project is complementing the FIPSE project by providing support for additional workshop activities, preparation of student projects and assignments, and development of a web site and a professional brochure. Some partial funding is being provided to institutions who will test the Macalester model.The program is interdisciplinary. The pilot year involve courses in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Political Science, Geography, and English. It is also cohesive. The focus is on public policy, and all courses use the same policy issue to illustrate applications. All students come together one evening per week to hear experts debate the policy issue and talk about their own use of quantitative methods in analyzing options. The policy topic however changes from year to year. While certain core courses participate every year, other departments participate only when the topic is particularly relevant. This is a mechanism for drawing in less quantitative departments. Viewing quantitative methods through the lens of policy analysis has the potential to be a strong motivator for students, demonstrating the power of quantitative methods in a context students recognize as important.