The focus of this course is on applied learning and your ability to take the information from the course and apply it to a real problem, program, or policy. There really is no one best way to design a research project. The emphasis is on finding the most appropriate way. For example, choosing exercise over eating unhealthy foods is almost always the best choice. Unfortunately, things are not that clear in research. An evaluation design is not always the best in every circumstance. For example, if you are evaluating the effectiveness of an entitlement program that provides cash to low income families, you should not use an experimental design in which some families are randomly excluded from receiving these benefits. You cannot deny benefits that someone is legally entitled to receive. While an experimental design is usually seen as a good design, in this instance, it would not be appropriate.

For this Assignment, you will develop an effective research question and select an appropriate evaluation design for your program, problem, or policy. Review the Learning Resources for this week. Use the organization that you selected as the topic of your Discussion post for this week, and reference your colleagues’ feedback to guide you in selecting your research question(s) and evaluation design. You will be using their feedback to help you further develop and refine the research question and evaluate design you choose for your research project.

In your Assignment, include the following:

• Briefly describe the organization that you will use for your Final Project.
• Briefly describe the program, problem, or policy within that organization that might benefit from evaluation.
• Develop a research question(s) that defines the purpose of the evaluation.
• Describe the evaluation design that is most appropriate for this program, problem, or policy, and justify your selection. Include a discussion of validity and reliability.

Use at least three scholarly sources from the library that were published within the past five years to support your paper. Be sure to follow APA guidelines when citing your sources.

Papers should be double-spaced and be 3–5 pages in length, not including the cover and reference pages.

Readings

• Johnson, G. (2014). Research methods for public administrators (3rd ed.). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
  • Chapter 3, “What is the Question?” (pp. 34–47)
  • Chapter 4, “Identifying Measures and Measurement Strategy” (pp. 48–63)
  • Chapter 5, “Designs for Research: The Xs and Os Framework” (pp. 64–83)
  • Chapter 6, “Other Research Approaches” (pp. 84–96)
• StatPac. (2009). Qualities of a good question. Retrieved from http://www.statpac.com/surveys/question-qualities.http