608 Statistics for Public Policy

This is an introductory statistical course designed for public policy students to analyze and solve statistical problems in the real world. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with a number of statistical techniques commonly used for analyzing different types of policy data. Throughout the course, it emphasizes two crucial aspects of students’ learning: 1) statistical analysis for policy data, and 2) presentation and interpretation of statistical results. While the course will cover some basic theories behind the majority of the statistical methods, it will focus mostly on their applications. Students will learn when each statistical test should be used and the assumptions behind each test. In addition, students will learn how to describe and interpret the output of the analyses that they run. This course is designed around the concepts of flipped classroom, collaborative and experimental learning, with plenty of hands-on exercises and problem-solving on a project basis. The free R open-source software will be used for this course for conducting statistical analysis and data visualization.