Integrating Curriculum, Research, and Civic Engagement with the Policy Research Shop Model (original) (raw)

On May 10 2012 three students from the Dartmouth College Policy Research Shop briefed NH Governor John Lynch on the best practices for developing a performance measurement system for the state bureaucracy, capping a ten-month co-curricular research project that included nearly thirty comparative case studies, many interviews of public officials, a thorough literature review, and the preparation of a comprehensive analysis of best practices for performance measurement in the field of public safety. These students effectively bridged the public policy curriculum, beginning with an introductory course in public policy analysis, moving into independent, but subtly mentored research, and civic engagement, culminating with a professional, non-partisan policy briefing at the highest level of state government. This paper details the co-curricular Policy Research Shop model that produced this outcome, and particularly the role of the faculty mentor, and proposes ways for its replication at other institutions with public policy programs of different sizes and levels of available funding.