Statement of the Problem, Outline and Paper. You are responsible for writing a final paper, due no later than Week 8, however, I have broken up the assignment into smaller steps which you will submit according to the schedule, below. The purpose of the paper is to take a problem in urban education (any level) that has an issue related to diversity at its core. You job is to describe, in a compelling, research-based way, what we know about the problem (the literature review), and what we still don’t know, making the case for additional research or a rethinking (for example for a policy). You could be writing about the interventions being used for a particular issue, or the policies being used – anything with practical applications. The key components for the final paper are broken up below into individual, successive assignments. The goal is to introduce you to the style and format of papers that will be expected throughout the program. These pieces consist of: a) Statement of the problem: You will select one specific topic for the paper. The first assignment due is the opening of your paper: make the case that there is a problem (what evidence would you use?), and that it is sufficiently compelling (significant – how would you demonstrate that?) that we need to be thinking about it. The statement should be about 2-3 double spaced pages, with a clear statement of the problem usually appearing no later than the bottom of the second page. Statement is due during Week 4 via the Moodle Drop Box. Please be sure you have had at least one class member review your paper for clarity prior to submitting it to me. (Value of 10 points) b) Review of the literature: Once you have established a clear statement of the problem, you need to review what we already know about the issue from the research literature. Scour the library, sort the studies into general themes, and review what you have found with an eye towards, do we already know the answer to the question? (If so, why raise the issue?) If we do not , why not (for example, studies may have used samples that are not representative of the student population you work with). In the final paper, your review will be about 10 pages long, but for the intermediate assignment, you need to turn in an outline stating how you will open the discussion, the major themes/headings and related studies (to the extent you can locate them by the deadline), and how you think you will close the section, by Unit 6 to the Moodle drop box. Note: I will make every effort to return feedback on your statement of the problem, electronically, during Week 7 so that you can incorporate that feedback into your thinking about the outline. (Value of 100 points) c)
