Topic: C195 Policy

Order Description
This assignment is worth 15 points. The goal of this project is to better understand policy issues related to children and families. In this assignment, you will describe a policy related to children, adolescents and/or families. Possible policy areas include, but are not limited to:
?Child care/Preschool ?Teenage pregnancy/unwed births ?Poverty ?Child abuse or family violence ?Divorce and custody ?Media ?Juvenile delinquency ?Parental involvement or Parenting interventions ?Other (can find many examples in library or through a search of ‘policy’ on the Internet)
** The policy should focus on a local, California State, or Federal policy ?not a policy from another country**
You will write a 10-page paper (double-spaced), using APA style (6th edition ), about this policy area. The organization and format of your paper MUST FOLLOW: ? PAGE 1: Title page – Title, name and affiliation, running head, date and audience of your policy paper (to whom are you directing this information—e.g., parents, teachers, administrators or board members, community members, policy makers such as Congress) – you need a title page for this assignment, unlike other assignments. Look at the Format for this assignment so it is correct. ? PAGE 2: Executive Summary – an abstract or summary of your policy paper (about 120 words). You must title it Executive Summary, not Abstract.
? PAGE 3: Table of Contents (if you don’t know what a Table of Contents looks like, check out Reading
3—it’s got a ToC in the beginning, or any textbook), so does the Format for this assignment. ? PAGES 4-6: Research – a 3 page review of the literature. What do we know about child or adolescent development in this area? Of course, this area sets up why there is a need (the rationale) for the policy you have chosen. ? PAGES 7-8: Policy – a 2-2.5 page summary of the policy you have chosen. Include in your description, as appropriate: name of the policy; whether it is a local, state or federal policy; purpose and the major social problems policy addresses; whether any rationale is/are value-based; target population(s); eligibility rules; services/provisions; short- and/or long-term program goals. ? PAGE 9: Costs and Benefits of Policy – ½-1 page (1.5 spacing) – What are the costs and benefits AND/OR pros and cons of this policy—based on research and/or other sources? If you can’t find
anything, then think about it and write what you think are some pros/cons/costs/benefits of this (no, you don’t have to figure out what it would cost).? PAGE 10: References: List your references USING APA FORMAT – see the guidelines for citing laws or other sources you are not familiar with citing. YOU MUST CITE 10 sources, including 7 scholarly sources–only 2 of the 10 may be from the reader (do not include textbooks from your other classes)—
these sources must be relatively current. However, you are allowed to use older articles if they are high quality, classical theoretical or empirical works. All of these sources that are listed must be integrated within the text. Scholarly sources include research, reviews of literature, policy reports in journals or books – they do not include newspaper articles, popular press/magazine articles, encyclopedia, Internet articles unless they are citing laws or are research journals. ? PAGE 11: APPENDIX: A copy of the policy goes here (no more than 5 pages should be included). IF YOUR PAGE LENGTH EXCEEDS the page numbers listed here, that is ok, but may not exceed 13 pages in total. This information is provided to give you a format to use
GRADING FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
Grading Guidelines: NO PLAGIARISM – don’t copy and paste text from the Internet or other
sources (except for the Appendix)
Structure/Writing = 3 points Executive Summary = 2 points Research Review = 3 points Policy Summary = 3 points Pros/Cons = 2 points References = 1 points Appendix = 1 point

A: Excellent description and write-up: policy issue is appropriate; review of literature contains many references to scholarly sources; policy description is appropriately comprehensive and accurate; includes pros/cons/costs/benefits; executive summary provides succinct description of topic and policy; references included and in APA format; assignment is well written & follows APA format. B:Good description & write-up; policy issue is appropriate; review of literature contains some references to scholarly sources, but could be more organized or comprehensive; policy description is accurate; includes some description of pros/cons/costs/benefits; executive summary provides description of topic and policy; references included and in APA format; has some writing errors maybe one error in APA format, but overall well written & follows APA format. C: Satisfactory description & write-up, includes most content for review of literature and policy, but literature and/or policy not well described, did not follow format of paper very well, some to many typos/stylistic errors, some problems with APA format. D: Not satisfactory description & write-up, partial content, unclear or absent information, many problems in literature review and policy description, did not follow format in writing paper, unorganized and/or poorly written. F: Unsatisfactory paper, partial and unclear content, poorly written, does not follow format.