Welcome to the start of SOWK 588, Advanced Policy Practice. Week one has a synchronous class session on Saturday (05/30/26). This week, we are starting our exploration of policy analysis by reflecting on previous policy analyses you have done. In the forums, you can write a definition of a problem, discuss current events and the impact of poverty, and further consider policy analysis. In class, we will continue to explore prospective policy analysis, applying it’s steps through a group process. I have a video that discusses/reviews the course syllabus and the key assignments for this class. During the in-class session, the agenda will be as follows:

• Course implementation discussion and housekeeping
• Practice with the process of prospective policy analysis

Learning Objectives this week include:

• Understand the significant assignments and general flow of this class
• Define a policy problem as a gap between a descriptive, as-is, condition and a normative, to-be, condition.
• Construct a succinct, evidence-informed problem definition for social policy
• Synthesize insights from contemporary data and events to reflect on evolving issues in policy practice
• Describe and apply the sequential approach to policy analysis in classical models of prospective policy analysis.