Week 5:Building an Agenda

 

Week 5:Building an Agenda, Experienced policy advocates realize that their first challenge is to get a specific policy issue on decision makers’ agendas in agency, community, or legislative settings.

—Bruce S. Jansson, Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice (8th ed.)

 

When you have committed yourself to an issue and become involved in convincing others that the issue is important enough to merit serious attention by decision makers, you are taking the first step to building an agenda.

In Week 5, you explore the importance of agenda-building processes to policy practice. You examine procedures for getting items on policy agendas, explore ways for building skills that help get proposals onto agendas, and develop strategies for getting agenda items in front of decision makers.

Learning Objectives

Week 5:Building an Agenda

Students will:

• Analyze strategies for putting items on policy agendas
• Evaluate accuracy of the Kingdon model of policy making

Learning Resources

Required Readings

SOCW 6361 Webliography

These websites will be required throughout the semester. Become familiar with these websites, especially when doing research for your assignments.

Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.

• Chapter 6, “Committing to an Issue: Building Agendas” (pp. 176-203)

Optional Resources

MSW home page

Use this link to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.

Small Group Discussion: Policy Agendas

There are challenges to agenda building that if not dealt with carefully and skillfully can adversely affect an issue or a proposal that you are trying to place in front of a decision maker. On the other hand, no matter how expertly you build an agenda for your issue or proposal, some issues are going to simply be avoided or not selected for consideration. Why is this so?

In this Small Group Discussion, you explore challenges surrounding policy agendas and the reasons why some proposals never make it to the decision maker.

By Day 3

Post your responses to the following questions presented for Small Group Discussion:

• Many social issues do not receive the necessary attention from decision makers. Why might these issues be cast aside?
• Some issues lack sufficient support to ensure that they are added to decision-makers’ agendas. Why might this be?
• Some issues receive significant attention from decision makers. Why might these issues easily find their way onto decision makers’ agendas?

Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week’s resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.

By Day 5

Respond to your colleagues’ responses to the group discussion.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 5 Small Group Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5

To participate in this Discussion:

Week 5 Small Group Discussion

Assignment: Kingdon: Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies

Agenda building is often the first step in your policy practice tasks. Building a solid agenda may well determine the success of the development of a policy proposal and may also determine your success in placing an issue in front of a decision maker.

For this Assignment, you evaluate the accuracy of the Kingdon model of policymaking.

To prepare: Review Chapter 6 in your text, paying special attention to the section entitled “Three Challenges in Agenda Building.”

By Day 7

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper evaluating the accuracy of the Kingdon model in policymaking. Address the following:

• Discuss the three streams Kingdon has identified where problems originate, and provide your opinion on which one most accurately reflects how and why policies come about.
• Discuss the assertion that certain kinds of issues receive preferential treatment in problem solution and political streams.
• Discuss tactics that policy practitioners use within each of the three streams to increase the odds that a specific issue will be placed on decision agendas.

Make sure that your assertions are supported by appropriate research and reputable resources.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK5Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK5Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 5 Assignment Rubric

Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity

To check your Assignment draft for authenticity:

Submit your Week 5 Assignment draft and review the originality report.

Submit Your Assignment by Day 7

To submit your Assignment:

Week 5 Assignment

Week in Review

This week you analyzed strategies for putting items on policy agendas and evaluated the accuracy of the Kingdon model of policy making.

Next week you will create a policy proposal for individuals that will impact situations they face.

To go to the next week:

Week 6