For just over 20 years, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center鈥檚 has provided nonpartisan policy research reports to lawmakers, courts, and nonprofits in New Hampshire and Vermont to help inform the creation of data-driven public policy.
Students start with the class , where they learn about qualitative and quantitative research skills. The class solicits research projects from policymakers in the two states during that same term, then small groups meet with the 鈥渃lients鈥 to design a research proposal.
In winter term, they dive into wide-ranging research that includes surveys of the literature, interviews and surveys of stakeholders and experts, and analysis of government and private data from the sector, and then formally present their findings in an official research report and through formal testimony before legislative committees, nonprofit boards, and nongovernmental leadership committees.
鈥淲hat I encouraged all the groups to do is look at the research from every angle. We want to have all the perspectives considered,鈥 says , the Policy Research Shop director.
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