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Law and Public Policy

Getting started, books & articles, legislation & government reports, reports & working papers, news & current awareness, agencies, think tanks & advocacy groups, data sources, getting help, ready..set...go prepare for summer success.

This guide was originally prepared for the Law and Policy Research Sessio the Ready... Set... Go! Prepare for Summer Success event.

Reference Works

Don't forget print sources! These reference works can give quick background and cross-references when you are starting your research.

Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy, 2d ed., edited by Evan M. Berman ; Jack Rabin, founding editor. (print) Widener WID-LC JK9 .E525 2008x
Encyclopedia of American Public Policy/ Byron Jackson (print) Kennedy School Ref JK468.P64 J33 1999 Widener RR 3631.7
The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy / edited by Michael Moran, Martin Rein and Robert E. Goodin (print) Kennedy School Reserve Lamont REFERENCE JA71 .O945 2006x Widener Harvard Depository H97 .O88 2006

Public Policy Research Guides

These research guides may also include useful resources. Guides from other schools may link to protected databases or local copies of print items. Check HOLLIS to see if we have access to a particular database.

Harvard Kennedy School Library & Knowledge Services: Public Policy
Georgetown Law Library: Public Policy Research
University of Massachusetts: Public Policy and Administration Research
University at Albany: Public Administration and Policy

Subject Specific Research Guides

Public policy research often overlaps with other disciplines. The following guides can provide a useful starting point for specific areas of research. If your subject isn't represented below, try googling your subject and the phrase (in quotes!) "research guide."

Bankruptcy by Lisa Lilliott Rydin Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 323 views this year
Regulation of Financial Institutions by Lisa Lilliott Rydin Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 1839 views this year
Tax Law by Lisa Lilliott Rydin Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 1285 views this year
Canadian Official Publications by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 370 views this year
Energy: Government Agencies, Units, Plans, Stats, and Jobs by George Clark Last Updated Apr 29, 2024 250 views this year
Environmental Justice and Space, Place, & Identity by George Clark Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 581 views this year
Federal & State Legislative History by Mindy Kent Last Updated Apr 18, 2024 396 views this year
Government: A Guide to Research Resources by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Feb 26, 2024 246 views this year
Great Britain: Guide to the Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 321 views this year
Guide to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 227 views this year
HUFPI Research Guide by Susan Gilroy Last Updated Feb 29, 2024 279 views this year
Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 312 views this year
Law and Public Policy by Mindy Kent Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 412 views this year
Law and Society by Harvard Law School Library Research Services Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 871 views this year
League of Nations Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 142 views this year
Palestine in Government Documents by George Clark Last Updated Apr 1, 2024 417 views this year
President's Commission on the Status of Women by Jennifer Fauxsmith Last Updated Apr 17, 2024 785 views this year
Research Guide for CES Visiting Scholars by Fred Burchsted Last Updated May 22, 2024 482 views this year
Research Guide for Weatherhead Center Program Affiliates by Susan Gilroy Last Updated Aug 3, 2023 109 views this year
Soviet / Russian ephemera collection (late 1980s-1990s) by Anna Rakityanskaya Last Updated Nov 14, 2023 384 views this year
The Theodore Roosevelt Collection: A Guide for Researchers by Kate Donovan Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 316 views this year
U. S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 307 views this year
U.S. Congressional Publications by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 484 views this year
U.S. Department of State Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated May 1, 2024 907 views this year
U.S. Presidential Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 248 views this year
UNESCO Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 191 views this year
Uniform Laws and Model Acts by Deanna Barmakian Last Updated Sep 12, 2023 498 views this year
United Nations Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Feb 23, 2023 379 views this year
United States Declassified Documents by Hugh Truslow Last Updated Jan 20, 2023 353 views this year

Search HOLLIS Classic

Search HOLLIS+ for books and articles

Useful subject terms include:

Social Policy
Public Policy (Law)
Political Planning

Not at Harvard? Try searching WorldCat

WorldCat.org (OCLC) more... less... WorldCat is the largest library network in the world. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their free resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. ##WorldCat's coverage is both deep and wide. You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. You can also link to many new kinds of digital content, such as downloadable audiobooks you can listen to on many portable MP3 players. You may additionally find authoritative research materials, such as documents and photos of local or historic significance; abstracts and full-text articles; and digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public.

Find Public Policy Articles

PAIS International (Harvard Login) PAIS International indexes the public and social policy literature of public administration, political science, economics, finance, international relations, law, and health care, International in scope. Current:1972-present Archive: 1937-1976 more... less... PAIS International indexes the public and social policy literature of public administration, political science, economics, finance, international relations, law, and health care, International in scope, PAIS indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The database is comprised of abstracts of thousands of journal articles, books, directories, conference proceedings, government documents and statistical yearbooks.
PolicyFile (Harvard Login) Description: PolicyFile provides abstracts (more than half of the abstracts link to the full text documents) of domestic and international public policy issues. The public policy reports and studies are published by think tanks, university research programs, research organizations which include the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the Rand Corporation, and a number of federal agencies. more... less... PolicyFile provides abstracts (more than half of the abstracts link to the full text documents) of domestic and international public policy issues. The public policy reports and studies are published by think tanks, university research programs, research organizations which include the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the Rand Corporation, and a number of federal agencies. The database search engine allows users to search by title, author, subject, organization and keyword.

Restricted Access: HarvardKey or Harvard ID and PIN required

Proquest Government Periodicals Index (Harvard Login) Government Periodicals Index covers the publications of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. more... less... ProQuest Government Periodicals Index provides indexing and links to full text articles from over 300 periodicals published by agencies and departments of the United States Federal government. The index provides detailed access by subject and author. ####Updated quarterly (March, June, Sept, and December), Government Periodicals Universe covers the publications of scores of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. With each update, the service adds approximately 2,500 articles that reflect the enormous diversity of federal interests.
Policy Commons Database for public policy, with more than 3 million reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.

Public Policy Journals

Harvard Law & Policy Review
Stanford Law & Policy Review
Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy
Hein Online Law Journal Library: Advanced Search In the subject field, select Public Law and Policy to narrow your search to relevant journals. Note by selecting Public Law and Policy, you will be able to view a long list of policy-focused law journals.
JSTOR Public Policy & Administration Collection of full-text journals relating to public policy. Coverage varies by title. more... less... JSTOR (www.jstor.org) is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. For complete lists of titles and collections, please refer to http://www.jstor.org/about/collection.list.html.
Search HOLLIS for U.S. law & public policy journals

Law and Legislation

THOMAS A resource created by the Library of Congress, THOMAS provides access to a wide range of legislative materials including public laws, pending bills, committee reports and hearings. It also provides access to the full text of legislation from 1989 (101st Congress) to the present. This is a good resource for compiling legislative history materials.
House and Senate Hearings, Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection, and Digital US Bills and Resolutions A major source of information about the members of Congress and their legislative activities and a primary resource for accessing the many publications of the U.S. Congress from 1789 to present
LexisNexis State Capital Extensive access to state legislation, administrative law, and commentary more... less... LexisNexis State Capital provides access to the legislation and administrative law of all 50 states. Consult this resource to retrieve: the full text of bills, current state statutory codes and constitutions, adopted regulations as available in current state administrative codes or as initially published in state registers and proposed regulations as also located in recent state registers. Tracking reports of the status of current bills and proposed regulations are provided as well. Coverage of current legislative issues and developments by state newspapers of record and other publications is also offered by State Capital. In addition, current state legislative directory information and the Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest are included in this resource.
Federal Legislative History (HLSL Research Guide) For more detailed links for finding legislative history, please consult our Federal Legislative History Research Guide

Congressional Research Reports

The Congressional Research Service provides background research for members of Congress. CRS Reports are not automatically made public, so there is no single source for finding CRS Reports. Try these resources to locate CRS Reports on your issue.

Every CRS Report Open access to selected public research reports produced by the Congressional Research Service
Harvard Kennedy School: Research Guide to Congressional Research Service Reports

Government Research Reports and Analysis

Proquest Government Periodicals Index (Harvard Login) more... less... ProQuest Government Periodicals Index provides indexing and links to full text articles from over 300 periodicals published by agencies and departments of the United States Federal government. The index provides detailed access by subject and author. ####Updated quarterly (March, June, Sept, and December), Government Periodicals Universe covers the publications of scores of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. With each update, the service adds approximately 2,500 articles that reflect the enormous diversity of federal interests.
National Journal Group's Policy Central (Harvard Login) more... less... National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics.
CQ Press Electronic Library (Harvard Login) A comprehensive reference resource for research in U.S. politics, elections, government, and public policy. Includes CQ Weekly, the Washington Information Directory, Congressional, Federal, Judicial Staff Directories, CQ Researcher, the Congress Collection, Voting and Elections Collection, and more. more... less... A comprehensive reference resource for research in U.S. politics, elections, government, and public policy. Includes CQ Weekly, the Washington Information Directory, Congressional, Federal, Judicial Staff Directories, CQ Researcher, the Congress Collection, Voting and Elections Collection, and more.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. Non-classified GAO reports are available online or via the GAO's iPhone app.

Working Papers

If you're looking for works in progress or articles that have been accepted, but not yet published, here are some places to search.

SSRN: Social Science Research Network SSRN contains both full text and abstracts of forthcoming and scholarly working papers--as well as published articles--in a full range of social science disciplines: law, economics, management, negotiation, politics, etc.
BePress BePress is another academic repository that contains both published and working papers.
World Bank Policy Research Working Papers A collection of policy research working papers, policy research reports, and world development reports in the World Bank's Archives.
Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Working Paper Series Index to HKS working papers on research in a number of areas related to public policy.

Grey Literature

"Grey Literature" refers to documents produced by entities that are not primarily publishers. It can include reports, memos, working papers and internal documents. These research guides give some good sources and tips for locating these types of materials.

Grey Literature Research Guide (University of Michigan)
Grey Literature Research Guide (NYU)

Looking for a report written by a think tank, non-profit, or other NGO? The links below include tools that can help you search across think tank sites, find organizations by topic, and more.

If you know which organization you're looking for, you can of course go directly to an organization's website. If you have trouble finding something you think should exist on a specific site, remember it's easy to create a custom search engine with Google. For example, if you are looking for the recent Rand report Planning for an Aging Nation, you would type the following into the search box:

"Planning for an Aging Nation" site:rand.org

This will limit your search to just Rand's website. You can limit your search further to just results in PDF by running the following search:

"Planning for an Aging Nation" site:rand.org filetype:pdf

UNC Think Tank Google Search This custom Google search engine allows you to search across 300 of the most important US and international think tanks.
HKS Think Tanks Directory The Kennedy School Library's directory of think tanks covers US and International organizations.
Think Tank Rankings (International Relations Program, University of Pennsylvania) Global directory of top think tanks by region, subject, and special achievement, i.e. most innovative proposals, best new think tank.
NIRA - National Institute for Research Advancement (Japan, 2005) Directory A worldwide directory of think tanks that provides descriptions of the organizations' work, operating budgets, and officers.
Master Government List of Federally Funded R&D Centers (National Science Foundation)

News Sources

Nexis Uni (Harvard Key) Nexis Uni contains major newspapers and magazines with coverage for about the last 30 years.
Proquest Historical Newspapers If you're looking for older news stories, Proquest may have it. Its coverage includes the New York Times, Washington Post, and WSJ, as well as several other major regional US and African American newspapers dating from the 19th-late 20th centuries.
Widener Collection of Newspapers on Microfilm If you're in the Boston area, remember that Widener Library has a large collection of newspapers on microfilm including regional and local titles.
Factiva Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text. Sources are in 22 languages, date back as far as 1969, and include trade journals, newswires (Dow Jones, Reuters, and others), media programs, and company and stock reports more... less... Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text. Sources are in 22 languages, date back as far as 1969, and include trade journals, newswires (Dow Jones, Reuters, and others), media programs, and company and stock reports. Find information on over 22,000 public and private companies including description, history, current stock quote, financial data, competitors, and the latest news on business activities. Search publications by title, industry, geographic locations, type, and language.
National Journal Group's Policy Central (Harvard Login) National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics. more... less... National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics.

Current Awareness

If you're following an issue, there are a number of ways to keep up on developments. Lexis and Westlaw both have alerting services that will send you an email when there are new results for a search you've run. Some general academic databases listed in this guide also have alerting services.

Lexis alerts Set up a Lexis alert to be notified when new results are available for a search. You can set alerts in most database types and for new Shepard's results.
Justia's BlawgSearch Find legal blogs in your research areas to follow, or search across the legal blogosphere. Either way you can subscribe to results with your favorite RSS reader.
Google News Search news sites with Google and subscribe to the results.
ABA Blawg Directory Browse by region to find local law blogs

U.S. Government Agencies

Federal Agency Directory (Louisiana State University Library Online directory created as partnership between LSU and the Federal Library Depository Project
Leadership Connect (Harvard Login) Leadership Directories, also known as Yellow Books, contain current contact information for the leaders of major U.S. government, business, professional and nonprofit organizations. more... less... Leadership Directories researches contact and biographical data for hundreds of thousands of thought leaders in America - with emails, phone numbers, addresses, and background information. It provides web-based directories with in-depth organization profiles and verified contact information from companies, government agencies, Congressional offices, law firms, news media outlets, healthcare organizations, and nonprofits.
State and Local Government on the Web Links by state and subject.

International Agencies

List on IGOs (Northwestern University) Comprehensive guide to Intergovernmental Organizations compiled by librarians at Northwestern Univerisity
Duke Searchable NGO Database This is a selected searchable database of NGOs.
International Organizations (United States Institute for Peace) Alphabetical list of international organizations.
Yearbook of International Organizations Online Searchable database of approximately 63,000 international organizations. more... less... The Yearbook of International Organizations Online is a searchable database of approximately 63,000 international organizations. The information for each organization includes name, address, biographical information for company officers, history and aims, personnel and finances. All types of organizations are included such as formal structures, informal networks, professional bodies and recreational clubs.
Worldwide NGO Directory

Think Tanks

Interest groups and associations.

CQ Guide to Interest Groups and Lobbying in the U.S. Overview and analysis of interest groups and lobbying in American politics from the 18th century to the present.
OpenSecrets Open Secrets tracks money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy, and includes federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available
Political Advocacy Groups: A Directory of United States Lobbyists Online directory of lobbying groups organized by subject.
data.census.gov The U.S. Census Bureau’s online tool for accessing population, economic, geographic and housing information.
Court Statistics Project The CSP collects and analyzes data relating to the work and caseloads of US courts.
Statistical Abstract of the United States An authoritative and comprehensive summary of historical statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Use the Abstract as a convenient volume for statistical reference, and as a guide to sources of more information both in print and on the Web. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations, covering the years 1889-2011. Historical supplements include statistics from the colonial era through 1970.
ICPSR The ICPSR, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. All ICPSR datasets at Harvard University are maintained by the IQSS Dataverse Network. (Harvard University ID and PIN required).
The Supreme Court Database A the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of information about each case decided by the Court between the 1953 and 2008 terms. Examples include the identity of the court whose decision the Supreme Court reviewed, the parties to the suit, the legal provisions considered in the case, and the votes of the Justices.
Proquest Statistical Insight (Harvard Login) indexes and abstracts of the statistical content of selected publications of U.S. federal and state agencies, non-governmental associations, commercial publishers, universities, and international, research and business organizations. more... less... Proquest Statistical Insight is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts the statistical content of selected United States government publications, state government publications, business and association publications, and intergovernmental publications. The abstracts may also contain a link to the full text of the table and/or a link to the agency's web site where the full text of the publication may be viewed and downloaded.
Statistics Sources This resource indexes statistical resources alphabetically, topically and geographically, including international sources. It is available in print in the reference room at HA1 .S7.
WDI Online (World Development Indicators) WDI (World Development Indicators) Online contains statistical data from the World Bank for almost 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. more... less... WDI (World Development Indicators) Online contains statistical data from the World Bank for almost 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted. Data can be exported in Excel.

Public Opinion

American National Election Studies ANES contains downloadable data sets for U.S. elections and public opinion from 1948 to the present.
Gallup Analytics (Harvard Login) The Gallup Brain is a searchable record of more than 70 years of public opinion and includes answers to hundreds of thousands of questions, and responses from millions of people interviewed by The Gallup Poll since 1935. more... less... Fully searchable records of Daily U.S. Data - economic, well-being, and political data collected daily since 2008 of 1,000+ interviews; World Poll Data - economic, social, and well-being data collected annually since 2005 in 160+ countries, 1.5 million+ interviews worldwide; and Gallup Brain - historical Gallup trends on thousands of topics from the U.S. and world dating back to the 1930s.
General Social Survey The GSS contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades.
The Roper Center Public Opinion Archives The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is a leading archive of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion. The data held range from the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy, to the present. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented.
Pew Research Center for People and the Press The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is an independent, non-partisan public opinion research organization that studies attitudes toward politics, the press and public policy issues.

Additional Data & Public Opinion Sources

Databases for Statistical Research (Harvard Law School Library
Harvard Library Data Research Guides
Public Opinion Data Sources (Harvard Library)

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How to Construct a Policy Argument

March 30, 2016 By Doretta McGinnis 1 Comment

Policy arguments make many law students uncomfortable. You may panic when you’re expected to argue policy in an exam answer or legal writing assignment. Why is this, and how can you overcome it? The connection between rules and policy is both the cause of this discomfort and the solution to it.

Law school teaches you to think like a lawyer. One aspect of this process involves identifying legal rules and applying them to novel fact patterns. Law students become comfortable working with rules, even as they realize that the simplest sounding rule can be surprisingly complex and ambiguous when applied. Compared with legal rules, whether statutory or common law, policy arguments seem fuzzy and insubstantial. When asked to argue policy, students are afraid they’re simply making things up. But a good policy argument must have a solid legal basis.

Perhaps you’ve discussed policy arguments in class, or perhaps you’ll be expected to develop your own. Recently I’ve seen a student’s property outline that included a brief policy rationale for the outcome of every case (impressive!) and a practice criminal law exam that asked students to discuss policy arguments for and against a proposed definition of consent in a sexual assault statute. Discussing this exam led me to develop the following approach.

Roadmap for Constructing a Policy Argument

Start with a rule. Every legal rule is animated by an underlying policy. You just have to look for it. Policy is the underground root system; rules are the visible branches. Why is adverse possession ever allowed? Why does the mailbox rule exist? Or joint and several liability? Given any rule, you can determine and analyze policy by asking yourself, why is the rule the way it is? And could it be improved? To answer these questions, do the following:

Consider all stakeholders , even unsympathetic ones. Identify everyone who is affected by the rule, up to and including “society.” Consider their interests and how the rule impacts them. It’s often easy to disregard unsympathetic stakeholders, such as wrongdoers from the individual to institutional level, but their interests must be considered as well.

For example, suppose you’ve been asked to draft or critique a statute that requires physicians to report to authorities injuries they suspect are caused by child abuse. The stakeholders include, but may not be limited to, physicians, children, parents, child caregivers and others who work with children, child abusers (alleged and actual), the legal system, and society. Child abusers are in the category of unsympathetic stakeholders.

Identify stakeholder interests. Here is a quickly brainstormed list of interests; you may think of others.

Physicians: provide proper treatment; comply with law; protect patient privacy; minimize administrative costs.
Children: access appropriate medical treatment; be protected from abuse.
Parents: child safety; avoid false accusations of abuse.
Caregivers: child safety; maintain employment and credentials; avoid false accusations.
Alleged abusers: procedural fairness; avoid false accusations.
Convicted abusers: fair penalties; rehabilitation.
Legal system: costs; credibility; fairness; justice.
Society: safety/protection of children; access to medical care; isolating abusers; fairness; justice.

Consider whether – and how — the rule will facilitate or hinder each of these stakeholder interests. Some interests may be in tension with each other. If so, are some interests more compelling than others, such that they should take precedence? The interests of children may be paramount, but a rule grounded firmly in policy will not disregard the interests of alleged abusers.

Identify unintended consequences . Think about how the rule incentivizes people to act. What conduct does the rule encourage or discourage? Here we want to reduce child abuse and punish abusers. But what if the law causes parents not to seek medical care for children due to fear of being accused of child abuse? Or causes doctors to over-report common childhood injuries, leading to a flood of false child abuse allegations? A well-drafted rule incentivizes positive conduct and minimizes negative unintended consequences.

Consider costs . There are tangible costs, like money, and intangible costs, like time and reputational interests. Costs are incurred at all levels: from the individual (e.g., doctor), to the systemic (medical system, legal system), to society at large. For our example, consider the extent to which society must tolerate some false accusations, which incur personal and administrative costs, in exchange for the greater good of protecting children and punishing offenders. Can a rule be drafted that minimizes the former while encouraging the latter?

Embrace big concepts . In our example, big ideas like justice, fairness, and theories of punishment come into play. Other big concerns may include the potential for discriminatory enforcement and excessive government regulation of medical practice. Don’t be afraid to go big! Envision your ideal society and a rule, rooted in policy, that will contribute to it.

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About Doretta McGinnis

Doretta McGinnis is a law school tutor for Law School Toolbox. After graduating from Harvard, she worked in academic publishing until a friend dared her to go to law school. Doretta earned her JD at Penn Law, where she was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and a legal writing instructor. Eager to pay off her student loans, she practiced labor and employment law at a major Philadelphia law firm, but soon left Biglaw to pursue her interest in legal education. Doretta joined the faculty at Widener University Delaware Law School, where, over the course of nearly 20 years, she served as Associate Director of the legal writing program and taught labor law, employment discrimination, and bar exam prep. She is the co-founder of Admission Logic, LLC, an independent educational consulting practice focused on college and law school admissions.

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How about a reference book for policy arguments? For example, a reference book for all the 1L subjects would be very valuable.

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Current Issue

Volume 47 – Issue 1

Spring 2024.

Download the complete issue here .

About Harvard JLPP

The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy is published three times annually by the Harvard Society for Law & Public Policy, Inc., an organization of Harvard Law School students.

The Journal is one of the most widely circulated law reviews and the nation’s leading forum for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship.

The late Stephen Eberhard and former Senator and Secretary of Energy E. Spencer Abraham founded the journal forty years ago and many journal alumni have risen to prominent legal positions in the government and at the nation’s top law firms.

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Law and Public Policy Essay Contest

The Law & Public Policy Essay Contest is designed to encourage students to participate in discourse on state, national, and global legal issues by combining their research and writing skills to increase understanding on a law or policy matter and advocate for a position. Because the practice of identifying issues, applying rules to a set of facts, and making a well-reasoned conclusion is fundamental to the study and practice of law, the Law & Public Policy Essay Contest aims for participants to hone their writing and research skills in and outside of the classroom and pursue excellence in their work.

Eligibility:

The contest is open to current undergraduate students enrolled at Montclair State University. Each submission must be an original, unpublished, academic work on a topic related to law and public policy. Essays written for a class assignment or exam are eligible.

Submissions must be emailed as Microsoft Word documents. Essays may be 5-10 pages (double spaced) and must include proper citations.

Judging Process:

A panel of Montclair Sate Advisory Board members, many of whom are lawyers, will judge the submissions based on quality of writing, research (as well as citations), and originality.

Winning Submissions:

Winners will be contacted by email. The first-place place winner will receive a $300 prize and the second-place winner a $200 prize (both in the form of gift-card to a vendor of their choice). Selected papers will be featured on the Pre-Law Program webpage.

Submission Deadline:

All entries must be submitted to [email protected] by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 12, 2023.

Information:

Contact the Pre-Law Program Director, Isabelle Ramos , [email protected] , with any questions

Meet our 2023 Essay Contest Winners

Sofia Acevedo Valencia is a Junior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Communication Studies. Passionate about giving back to our community, Sofia is volunteer for the Office of Health Promotion and a sister of Sigma Delta Phi. Sofia is a staff writer and Assistant Opinion Editor for The Montclarion. You can find her articles in the newspaper webpage where Sofia discusses pop culture, politics, and personal experiences.

Essay Summary: “A Tale as Old as Time: The Effects of Coca and Narco-Trafficking in Colombian Politics” was written for Comparative Politics during the 2023 Spring semester. The essay discusses the beginnings of coca and narco-trafficking, why they are to blame for Colombia’s corrupt political system, and how American intervention influenced these events. The essay also explains the importance of Colombia’s recent election of a leftist president, as well as his plan to legalize coca plantations of rural impoverished farmers.

Emma Geoghegan is a senior at Montclair State University majoring in Policy Studies with double minors in Sociology and Pre-Law Studies. Emma is president of the Pre-Law Society and vice-president and co-founder of the MSU Sociology Club. She also works with The Borgen Project to help fight global poverty by making it a priority of her Congressmen’s foreign policy agenda.

Essay Summary: “Segregation in New Jersey Public Schools” was written for the class Public Policy Analysis during the Fall 2022 semester. The essay talks about both the past and present of the issue of the divide of students in schools based on race, and how this often leads to worse outcomes for Black and Hispanic students. The paper explores how other states have worked on solving this issue and provides solutions based on them to help fix the issue in New Jersey. Policies such as busing, assigning students to public schools based on socioeconomic status instead of geographical location, and improving and expanding on the state’s school choice program are all potential resolutions to close the racial segregation gap and provide better opportunities to minority students.

2022 Essay Contest Winners

Sam MacPherson is a sophomore at Montclair State University double majoring in Political Science and Jurisprudence, pursuing an accelerated MA program in Law and Governance. Outside of class, Sam is a Vote Everywhere campus ambassador for the Andrew Goodman Foundation and works closely with MSU’s newly founded Planned Parenthood chapter. Sam is also actively involved in her local town council and is passionate about civic engagement.

Essay Summary: “Consolidating Power: How Years of Sham Elections in Venezuela Act as a Vehicle for Corruption and Collapse” was written for Comparative Politics in the Spring of 2022. The essay catalogs the history of Venezuela’s corrupt election system, as well as the implications these practices have on the country’s economy and citizens. The essay also draws comparisons to corrupt election practices in the United States, highlighting the influx of misinformation during the 2016 election via the Mueller report.

Essay Summary: The purpose of the paper “Gender-Related Cultural Competency Trainings: Analysis and Policy Recommendations” was to do study transgender cultural competency trainings to determine what educational strategies were being used, what cultural competency constructs were addressed, and what themes were present. This paper examined three cultural competency trainings and performed an in-depth content analysis on them. Findings showed that the trainings studied focused more on knowledge and skill than they did investigating bias and prejudice, and that cultural competency trainings in general have a very individual focus.

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Sample Essays

This applicant shows that her passion for public interest law flows naturally from her volunteer activities and life experiences. When you finish this essay, do you have a sense of unity and completion? She tied her conclusion both to the highlights of the body and her opening paragraph.

The last thing I remember is falling asleep during a late night rerun of the Twilight Zone. So when it happened, it was especially eerie, like I had stepped into a lost episode, but Rod Serling was nowhere in sight; for moment, neither was anybody else. At 4:31 AM a merciless shove pushed me off my bed. I crawled on the floor, trying to escape the cruel, uncontrollable shaking, but it followed me. It followed me down the stairs and underneath the dining room table where my family joined me. Little did I realize that before the morning sun rose again, I would see everything differently.

My world changed. The 6.7 earthquake which crippled the Northridge area on January 17, 1994 rattled and ripped apart the fibers of security in our neighborhood. Our home was ruined; smashed glass, crumbled walls, and the lack of electricity, gas, and water made it uninhabitable. Without basic utilities, we slept and "lived" in our car for nine days while guarding our home from looters.

The damage was everywhere. A personal landmark, the Granada Hills Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, collapsed. The site where I had volunteered as a teen advisor — lobbying for and improving the quality of the teen health clinic while working one-on-one with underprivileged, problem teenagers — no longer existed. Only an empty lot and the memory of a valuable and productive medical and psychological outreach program for troubled youth remained.

As much as Northridge and its surrounding regions changed externally, so did the lives of the victims internally. Following this traumatic experience, I developed a keen awareness of the fragility of life and a newly restored appreciating for the simplest of my old comforts. As vulnerable and edgy as I was with every aftershock that rolled through the area, I consoled myself with reminders of how we were spared.

With a profound sense of gratitude for our relative good fortune, within weeks of the initial quake I volunteered at the American Red Cross Earthquake Relief Center. As my family and I rebuilt our home and our lives, I translated for Iranian earthquake victims and performed various clerical tasks. Yet, my most valuable contribution to the earthquake relief team stemmed from the moral support I was "qualified" to provide. With my earthquake experience, I was able to comfort the teary-eyed victims who approached us for help. I gave them the hope and understanding they sought from a primarily out-of-state staff. I benefited too: My work for the Red Cross aroused my curiosity in public interest law.

I had the opportunity to explore this new interest in the summer when I interned in Washington D.C. for Congressman Howard P. ("Buck") Smith of California. That summer I was responsible for attending meetings and informing the Congressman's staff of the issues discussed. One of the issues I followed dealt with a proposed guideline to prohibit religious expression in the workplace due to its allegedly offensive nature. Defining such acts as wearing a Star of David or praying silently before a meal as "religious harassment," the bill attempted to equate these acts with verbal or sexual harassment.

Still the most fulfilling experience of my internship was serving the Mr. Smith's constituents when they wrote, called, or visited our Washington office. Their concerns covered many issues, including city maintenance and the enforcement of FCC regulations on local radio stations; yet, most cries for help grew out of the January 17 disaster.

My experience in the earthquake proved to be useful in my internship. After all, I was working with Mr. Earthquake himself. As the only intern from Northridge, I was assigned to the Earthquake Project. I acted as a liaison between constituents and the Small Business Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other governmental agencies that handled quake reconstruction monies. Because of my experience, I was again able to empathize with victims in a way that neither the staff nor the other interns could. As a result of my work, I gained a more profound grasp of the legal process and how it was able to help Northridge residents with their post earthquake problems.

The January 17 earthquake dramatically changed my world — both inside and out. In the Red Cross shelter and in Congressman Smith's office, my career ambitions took shape: Public interest law grabbed me. Now I want to help those who cannot purchase legal services, not only by providing the empathy gained during my own trying experiences, but also by using the skills and knowledge I will acquire at the ABC Law School. With this preparation, I look forward to helping others escape their legal or bureaucratic "twilight zones."

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Public Policy and Government/Law Essay

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In society, governmental entities are usually given the mandate to enact laws that govern the people and their activities, make policies and also allocate the resources at all levels. The best definition of public policy therefore is a system that is made up of regulations, laws, funding priorities and course of action regarding an issue that is being disseminated by a certain arm of the government or at times, a representative of the government.

Public policy is usually shaped by people or groups through mobilizing interest groups, advocating or even educating the masses. The shaping of this policy in developed countries especially those in the west differs significantly from other governments. The process however always involves interest groups trying to outdo each other by convincing the policy makers to side them.

Law is very significant in public policy. Law involves certain legislation as well as the constitutional or even the international law. Law may for example influence how violence victims are handled and their rights. Legislation is needed to identify areas for research funding it may even be used to determine the amounts. This usually results in public policy debates over the proposed legislation as well as the funding (Fox 33).

On numerous occasions, public policy has come under intense pressure from various advocacy groups who are intent on influencing it by utilizing different techniques, such as the application of education, political pressure, and lobbying.

Advocacy groups often try to educate the public and the lawmakers about the problems that people face on a daily basis. In addition, they also try to educate the members of the public on the various services that they are entitled to, and the possible legislative solutions to ensure that the members of the public get access to such services.

Furthermore, the advocacy groups also try to educate the public on the needed funding for service provision as well as the research to be conducted. Advocacy may be perceived as unconventional by those in the research or professional community although it plays a very significant role in influencing the public policy. Research data is used to influence public policy and it is also needed to educate civilians and policy makers.

The doctrine is concerned with the principles that govern the legal system’s operations in every state. These principles help in addressing the economic, moral as well as the social values that holds a society together. These values vary from culture to culture and they also tend to change with time. Laws are responsible for the regulation of behavior to reinforce the social expectations that are in existence or encourage positive change.

The laws are only effective if they are in line with the norms of a society and reflect a society’s norms. Every judicial system is supposed to have certain features for it to be perceived as being viable. To start with, it is important to ensure that the judicial system in question is able to demonstrate neutrality by being impartial. It needs to exhibit flexibility and openness. It has to be certain and able to grow.

These qualities are needed because the judicial system is meant for dispute resolution and this is done in a systematic and fare manner as opposed to the violent means that are used whenever dispute resolution is left in the hands of the common public or private individuals. There is therefore a need to convince citizens to use the system of the court in handling dispute resolution (Watson 50).

A judge must refer to the underlying policies before ruling on any dispute. In addition, laws need to be at per with the social innovations. Laws may also be amended depending on the dispute and legal requirements at hand.

Ignorance is never an excuse for performing any sort of crime. Major legislatures therefore ensure that their laws are availed to the citizens at all costs. The law affects people’s personal lives directly and the adults are expected to know the legal consequences of their actions before they act.

They are only exempted from the full force of the law if they are mentally unstable. Furthermore, the sanctity of life seems to be the major policy that underpins most of the religious, moral as well as social systems. In law for instance, duress is never accepted as enough defense against murder for threat alone does not justify one to end the life of another. The law regards life as important and its protection is importance.

This has in most cases fueled the debate of whether it is justifiable for a patient to choose death as an option rather than live. The nagging question in most cases is usually whether there is such a concept as one’s right to die. A more complicated situation is that in which a patient is unable to choose as in the case of a child during the mother’s gestation period (Hix 2-8).

In law, people are not permitted to evade from their obligations and the associated liabilities. Due to social contract, the law is supposed to equally apply to everyone without favoring some. No one is supposed to be exempted from the law due to his/her societal rank or status.

The law of contract, on the contrary allow parties to make an agreement and hence excluding them from the other operational laws. These policies are usually specific to the major branches of the law. There is one policy in family law for instance which stipulates that the state is the overall parent or guardian of its children and the children are entitled to their rights under such a provision. The state is supposed to protect the interests of its children.

There is a policy that overlaps between the contract law and the family law. This stipulates that a marriage that is entered into with a commitment that could be termed as genuine is supposed to be perceived as valid unless if there is a valid reason for the validity to be nullified. This matches the contract law. The reason for this is to make effective the involved parties’ expectations.

State laws come into being due to various reasons. Some are meant to protect the nation’s sovereignty and they reflect territoriality. Public laws mostly apply within a country’s boundaries. Other policies are as a result of social contract. These policies define and regulate the relationship between the people and their country. Some rights apply across the globe and it is the state that decides the level to which they operate in its territories (Tavares 11).

The world seems to be moving towards globalization at a fast rate and people tend to be moving across the boarders at an increased rate. There is therefore a need to have some harmonized principles that ensure justice and order across the boarders. In this case, foreign law may be enforced.

The conflicts that are across boarders could be handled by adopting the conflict laws. The application of foreign law by a court is not supposed to contradict the public policy. Giving preference to the domestic laws over foreign laws has its own negative consequences as well. Judicial systems may prefer not to involve public policy when dealing with a foreign issue than with a legal issue that could be perceived as domestic.

Public policy is magnified in countries under the treaty and obligations involving human rights. Courts may rule as gender discrimination in the cases where a husband is granted permission to divorce his wife while the reverse cannot really happen. The legitimacy of polygamous marriages is also put under scrutiny in this case.

The courts are however supposed to handle these matters with caution so as not to be perceived as discriminating against religion. Another challenge is posed in the cases where a state allows incestuous relationships. There are places for instance where an uncle can marry a niece while in some underage marriages are allowed (Lunt 100).

In the events where the foreign laws are used as tools of oppression, then there is reason to deny them extra-territorial enforcement. Contracts can also be denied enforcement in the cases where such contacts expose the state to its enemies or if they are likely to ruin their relationship with a friendly state. Policy is very significant in enforcing foreign judgments.

Laws are not just fundamental but are also a unique government resource. Without laws, anarchy would be the order of the day. Force and personal preferences would be used to justify the government actions. Without laws, the people would not be protected against dictatorship and arbitrary authority.

They would be entitled to no social benefits and they would not be obliged to pay the taxes. The civil servants would lack the authority to follow and there would be no procedures to be followed. Elections could not be held as there would be no rules to govern the same. There is therefore a great need to understand the importance of the law.

Laws therefore help in guiding people to carry out their activities in a systematic way. Despite the fact that laws are vital in the public resources operations as well as the government operations, there is no need for excessive legislation as this could force the citizens to be mechanical. The statute law is therefore very significant in conducting the public policy. Public policy helps people by giving them strategies that assist them to meet their needs at every government level.

The government together with the public policy groups give expert counseling, advice, litigation and transactional services to not only at individual but also organizational level particularly when the parties involved have a dispute or misunderstanding in their business with the government bodies. The clients are help to develop an effective as well a comprehensive strategy to navigate the system of the government (Phelps 2-4).

Works Cited

Fox, R. Criminal Justice. Abstract. London: Macmillan Publishers, 1968. Print.

Hix, S. Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Abstract. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1975. Print.

Lunt, Nelson. Academic Universe. Manusript. San Antonio: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.

Phelps, Marcy. American Community Survey. Census. Puerto Rico: Washington, 2010. Print.

Tavares, Charles. Criminal Justice. Survey. San Antonio: University of Texas, 2005-2009. Print.

Watson, Ian. Social Services. Abstract. Texas: University of Texas, 1980. Print.

UN and Its Advocacy Groups
Judicial Activism: Term Definition
Judicial Review, Its Origins and Impact
Governance: Who Governs? Who Should Govern?
Virtual Police Department
Public Administration and Private Business
Creative Industries of New Zealand
U. S Postal Service
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, February 20). Public Policy and Government/Law. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-policy-and-government-law/

"Public Policy and Government/Law." IvyPanda , 20 Feb. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/public-policy-and-government-law/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Public Policy and Government/Law'. 20 February.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Public Policy and Government/Law." February 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-policy-and-government-law/.

1. IvyPanda . "Public Policy and Government/Law." February 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-policy-and-government-law/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Public Policy and Government/Law." February 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/public-policy-and-government-law/.

Sample Public Policy Personal Statement (Harvard, Brown, Erasmus Mundus)

by Talha Omer, MBA, M.Eng., Harvard & Cornell Grad

In personal statement samples by field.

The following essay is written by an applicant who got accepted to top graduate programs in public policy (MPP). Variations of this personal statement got accepted at Brown University, Harvard’s Kennedy School, UC Berkeley and Erasmus Mundus scholarship program. Read this essay to understand what a top personal statement in public policy should look like.

Related Personal Statement: Sample Public Administration Personal Statement (MPA)

Here is the example personal statement for MPP

I grew up in Monrovia. People here are resourceful and hardworking, but many live in crushing poverty with little opportunity for upward mobility. Like many rural towns in Liberia, the overwhelming needs of the public are neglected by paradigmatically dysfunctional bureaucracies. So when I was in high school, I thought getting a degree wouldd lift me beyond my humble background. But a strange thing happened while I was doing my undergrad. I found that many people around me, including my professors, were using their education to improve the lives of people living in places like Monrovia.

As a result, education became about empowerment – giving me the language to diagnose social issues. It gave me the understanding to recognize fulcrum points in political hierarchies and the skills to research, propose, and implement strategies for improving social policies. Finally, it gave me the heart and the will to take on the difficult task of making a better life for Liberians in need.

My goal is to become a policy analyst for the government. This position would allow me to promote and implement innovative educational, health, and social welfare policies. I have looked at many schools, but I have found very few that seem as aptly suited to my educational goals as Brown. The course offerings support specialization while allowing room for meaningful electives. Institutions and Policy Making is exactly that kind.

I need to expand my theoretical and practical concepts of social policy and welfare in developing countries. Most impressive to me is the number of faculty who are not just teachers but policy practitioners. For example, Professor John Tyler’s work on returns to education is impressive and shares themes with my thesis research: Economics of Education. In addition, I believe the diverse university culture at Brown will promote my concepts of global culture, practices, and ethics.

A graduate degree is essential to my goal of affecting multiple dimensions of policy in Liberia. I have worked on this goal from the beginning of my undergraduate degree. During my first few semesters, I realized how a shortage of skilled professionals inside public offices had undermined Liberia’s development for a long time. I saw that policy framework serve as ‘paradigms,’ dictating a country’s growth and development rules. I looked for courses that could build on this understanding and help me formulate realistic ideas for improving the status quo.

Courses on policy issues explained how unequal growth patterns in a country could destroy class mobility and quality of life. Economics provided an area of study that brought all these social and political factors together in one implementable philosophy. The more I learned, the more I saw how a small innovation could go a long way in places like Monrovia. I also began to understand that properly implementing this support is key to its success.

I found many others who shared my interests in the Economics department during my undergrad, including Dr. Mishu Pati and Dr. Cmeha Konaya. Both Professors are extremely active in their field, contributing cutting-edge research in trade and education policy, healthcare, and governance. I was immediately impressed with the scope and focus of their ideas. However, only after a few semesters of academic exposure and experience with internships, I realized the most impressive aspect of their work: it was theoretically impressive and implementable.

Working with Dr. Mishu Pati, I discovered my passion and appreciation for research. As a result, I completed three major research projects during my undergraduate degree. Each addressed a unique and important aspect of economic policy across various social influences. First, I studied inefficient pricing mechanisms in the wheat industry that translate into inflated prices. Furthermore, as part of my thesis, I studied economic returns to secondary education, especially regarding the acquired human capital and associated externalities that have a bearing on social well-being. Finally, the most influential and accomplished study allowed me to work with the Trade Development Authority of Liberia (TDAL) to improve export statistics for sanitary and phyto-sanitary handling of citrus fruit. Upon the conclusion of this project, my findings were presented to the officials at TDAL.

After graduation, I started working with Dr. Nakhai Abramozid, an esteemed Public Policy professor in Liberia. As a Research Assistant, I am currently studying livestock micro-insurance, a concept still developing in Liberia that requires the attention of academics and practitioners. Micro-insurance provides low-income families with risk-averse methods to increase their financial independence and fosters growth in their enterprises. Therefore, I was especially excited when I discovered that there are currently only two pilot projects in Liberia.

My RAship analyzes these pilots and advises potential micro-insurance providers and other stakeholders. This experience has allowed me to stay connected with policy practitioners and academics by ensuring continued interaction in the field of Public Policy. It has also put me at the forefront of a developing policy that is beginning to show a lot of promise.

Since I have kept a clear direction and set of goals throughout most of my undergraduate degree, I have been able to do a lot to develop and grow my understanding of public policy, research, and ethics. I have undertaken extra responsibility whenever possible and focused my education on my goals. And yet, imagining all the experiences, classes, and projects I will be able to undertake at Brown University makes me feel like I still have so far to go.

Nevertheless, the holistic skill set developed in the Public Policy program will allow me to pursue my goals. I want to be equipped with a deep understanding of policy analysis, project management, financial management, and technology integration. I wish I had more opportunities to talk with you about the difference Brown would make in my education and the difference my education can make to the underserved people in Liberia.

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

The Policy Concerns That Keep Teachers Up at Night

We teachers have our hands full with our day-to-day classrooms, but education policies can have a major impact on our working lives.

Here are the policy issues some educators feel we should be most concerned about:

Restrictions on What Can Be Taught

Bryant Odega is a Los Angeles-based labor-rights activist and teacher-candidate fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education:

I think the most important education policy issue facing public schools today are the topics and curricula teachers are able to teach. There is a growing effort by conservatives to restrict teaching topics, even going as far as banning books that talk about gender, sexuality, or race; turning libraries into disciplinary centers’ and distorting the history of slavery and racism in order to minimize its impact.

However, this is not new; restricting knowledge, especially within the context of race, is an age-old issue within the United States. In his book, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching , Harvard professor Jarvis R. Givens writes about how teachers in Virginia’s freedpeople’s schools were subject to terror following the Civil War. Furthermore, Black education itself was subject to violent white protest. These are experiences that continued during Woodson’s years as a student during the 1880-'90s. Racial progress too often begets resentment and backlash. Woodson would eventually launch what we now celebrate as Black History Month and popularize Black studies as an academic discipline. Nevertheless, efforts to halt the teaching of race continue today.

Cultural diversity in the classroom is important for students because culture informs the way people perceive themselves, each other, and the world. The lack of inclusion and diversity sends a message to students that their perspectives, cultures, and contributions to society are not significant, and as educators, this is an issue we must tackle head-on.

Professor Rudine Sims Bishop popularized the concept of Mirrors and Windows promoting a multicultural curriculum which “mirrors” the daily experiences of students and “windows” into the experiences of others. This approach engages students by including, affirming, and respecting their cultures and life experiences in the classroom. It also helps them learn about experiences different from theirs, even finding cross-cultural connections in ways they may not have considered before.

If we want to educate a civil society of critical thinkers and informed decisionmakers, then our students deserve all the opportunities possible to engage in knowledge that helps them recognize their own agency, respect others, and become change makers in their own lives and those of their communities.

As educators, it is important for us to reject conservative efforts to take us backward and instead teach and affirm the entire humanity of our students, to advance humanity forward. If we remove cultural diversity and awareness from our classrooms and curricula, we will be perpetuating a narrative that denies the cultural diversity and humanity of our students.

So how do we accomplish this? Teachers should continue teaching and reading from books that include cultural diversity and awareness. Here’s a list of books that can help. Additionally, teachers should discuss book bans and curriculum censorship with students so that they can analyze the impact of these efforts and reflect on how they would respond. Being able to apply skills developed in class to real-world events further helps students in their learning process.

Teachers should also get more civically engaged, whether it’s voting, attending school board meetings, or getting more involved in your labor union. Teachers’ unions are on the front lines of combating the current attacks on curriculum, and there’s been success in codifying culturally affirming policies for students within labor contracts with school districts as demonstrated by the teachers’ union within the Los Angeles Unified school district, the nation’s second largest district, United Teachers Los Angeles . UTLA succeeded in codifying support in advancing ethnic studies and culturally responsive curriculum within its labor contract with the district. These are just some ways to address this issue within and outside the classroom. Most importantly, continue to stay informed and alert in order to best serve the needs of your students.

‘Professional Learning’

Angela M. Ward, Ph.D., is an anti-racist educator with over 25 years of experience in education. She is focused on creating identity-safe schools and workplaces. Follow her @2WardEquity on Instagram & X and visit http://2wardequity.com/blog/ to subscribe to the 2Ward Equity newsletter:

Professional development is used to launch the school year and introduce new curriculum, tools, processes, and resources. It is a critical component to supporting the adults in the education workforce. Mediocre professional development in public schools threatens the future progress of the profession to meet the needs of the most vulnerable students. Public schools have taken “professional” out and replaced it with compliance, sit-n-get, meaningless offerings that do little to prepare educators for the challenges of today. Teachers, principals, directors, executives, and superintendents all need high-quality professional learning to navigate the turmoil the educational system sits in.

Instead of development, I choose to focus on the adult as a learner and find professional learning to be more promising. Professional learning opens the door to new knowledge pathways and acknowledges the choice available to educators. It invites adult learners into a collaborative and interactive space to learn, enhance their skills, and build capacity to go into and impact learning in the classrooms, hallways, conference rooms, and board rooms each day. In a professional learning experience designed for an adult to build their personal capacity, facilitators work to understand participant skills and knowledge and to build rapport in the time allotted to enhance educator self-efficacy.

As I work with districts, it is clear to me that high-quality professional learning is not the norm. It is exceptional to find a district that dedicates a budget for learning experiences that build educator awareness, enable them to sharpen their skills, and challenge their thinking to push them to their growth edge—what Vygotsky (1978) calls their zone of proximal development. Without adequate learning and growth space, we are hemorrhaging educators to private-sector jobs that value their expertise and knowledge and support them with learning teams, as well as onboarding them to a work culture focused on their professional growth.

Funding and providing the time and space for the design and delivery of high-quality professional learning is a key policy issue facing public schools. Our students deserve a highly qualified workforce that is tapped in to the latest research and learns about their needs through ongoing community building outside the school walls. To be effective, professional learning must address the immediate needs of the educator to support the most vulnerable students in our schools. By supporting adults to learn how to support the most vulnerable, adults are better prepared to ensure all students receive what they need.

Civics Education

Michael Hernandez is an award-winning educator and speaker. He is the author of Storytelling With Purpose and is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Lindblad/National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow:

One of the biggest issues public schools face today is our ability to develop productive citizens—students who are prepared to apply the knowledge of our curriculum in constructive ways to solve problems in the world beyond our classrooms. The pressure to attain high test scores and the obsession with data-driven learning has left kids and teachers unengaged and disconnected from our world and their own lives. We’ve neglected what matters most in education, which is the focus on the humanity of learning: curiosity, passion, and our responsibility as members of a local and global community.

Test results released last May by the National Assessment of Educational Progress show 8th grade civics scores down for the first time ever. While some blamed the pandemic for the decline (reading and math scores were also down), my experience in the classroom leads me to believe that it’s more about cultural shifts and the doubling down on teaching based on direct instruction/memorization/testing.

In the same way that you have to conduct experiments to truly understand science and have to write in order to create and comprehend literature, we must also actively put the concepts of civics into practice to truly understand their purpose and how they function in our own communities.

One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is through project-based-learning experiences like journalism and documentary filmmaking. Digital storytelling projects like these allow students to explore topics that they are curious or passionate about and integrate research and writing skills at the same time. There are many advantages to these projects:

Students make personal connections to the topic and develop empathy for people affected by policies and social conditions.
Students see and feel the concrete implications of politics and public policies on the ground in front of them, rather than reading about it in a book, which only develops an abstract relationship to the material.
Students develop and apply skills like critical thinking, logic and reasoning, and ethical decisionmaking.
They help students develop the skills, knowledge, and courage to become civically engaged beyond the classroom.
Students are empowered to participate in society in constructive ways and see their personal role and responsibility to contribute in positive ways.

Project-based-learning challenges like digital storytelling help students become active participants in civic life rather than passive bystanders who might feel disenfranchised or frustrated with the political system. It also sends important messages about our trust and respect for our students, their experience, and their unique points of view. This in turn models how to develop healthy, productive relationships with others to achieve common goals, which are vital life skills in a democracy.

Here are some ways teachers can start conversations around civic engagement through digital storytelling, even if they aren’t officially a journalism or social studies teacher.

Empathy Interviews . Have students identify people in their community who have a relationship to your current unit or topic of study, such as an author of a book, a journalist, a recent immigrant, or a scientist. Record an interview with them (use a voice-recording app on your phone/iPad or via video-conferencing tools like Zoom), then review the responses, looking for new insights or ways they challenged students’ existing thinking. This models listening and empathy skills.
Humans of Your School . Inspired by the Humans of New York blog, this lesson asks students to take portraits of lesser-known members of their community and include their insights on their life or current living/working conditions. Post the images and text on a class website or social media channel. This project uplifts diverse voices and helps build community.

Even in our busy lives as teachers, small projects like these can quickly energize the classroom and get kids excited about learning and being an active member of their community.

Thanks to Bryant, Angela, and Michael for contributing their thoughts!

Today’s guests answered this question:

What do you think is the most important education policy issue facing public schools today, why do you think it is so important, and what is your position on it?

Keisha Rembert and Kit Golan provided responses in Part One .

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email . And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 12 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list here .

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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The priority deadline to submit your application for fall 2024 is Feb. 1 and the final deadline is June 1. The last LSAT we will accept for the 2024 application cycle is the June 2024 exam.

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The statement must be no more than three pages, double-spaced and 12 pt. font. An applicant's personal statement is an opportunity to provide information that the applicant believes should be considered.

The personal statement prompt is: Tell us about a person or event that impacted/influenced your life. Please list the prompt at the top of your written statement.

If an applicant wishes to address their grades, academic disqualifications, etc. they may do so by addressing these circumstances in the Optional Essays section.

Provide a Resume of full-time employment and other activities, starting with the most recent. Include dates, name(s) of employer(s), and position(s) held. List the hours worked per week and academic honors received since entering college. List extracurricular activities, hobbies and community service. Describe the nature and extent of employment during college and include volunteer work. Please include summers. Explain any periods of time after high school not accounted for by the preceding educational and employment history. However, all high school information should be omitted.

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In support of the application, applicants must submit two letters of recommendation directly to LSAC; we will accept a maximum of three letters. Applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to their college professors and administrators who have had the opportunity to assess their academic, time management, research and analytical skills to write on their behalf.

Applicants who have been out of school for a considerable amount of time can submit letters of recommendation from employers, business colleagues, and mentors. Letters from family members and close personal friends are discouraged. These letters should address skills relevant to your potential success in law school.

Please note that LSAC will not release an applicant's CAS report to McGeorge until they have received a minimum of two letters of recommendation. The application will remain incomplete and will not be reviewed until the applicant's file is complete.

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All transcripts for college and graduate work must be submitted directly to LSAC. LSAC will evaluate each transcript and forward a report to each law school the applicant designates.

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Please note if an official transcript with degree posted is not initially submitted in the CAS report , an applicant is required to submit a copy of an official transcript with degree posted directly to the McGeorge JD Admissions Office before the first day of orientation to complete e nroll ment .

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Explain any discrepancies in your application.
Fully clarify and provide more information regarding any Character and Fitness questions.
Tell us more about your interest in McGeorge School of Law. What makes our school a good fit for you in terms of academic interests, programmatic offerings and learning environment?
Discuss how your specific personal experiences, given your background (race, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQIA+ status, economic disadvantage or otherwise) demonstrate an important quality of your character and/or one more unique ability you can contribute to the law school.

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Test of english as a foreign language (toefl).

An applicant who did not complete their bachelor's degree from an English-language college or university, and for whom English is not their primary language is required to take the TOEFL. This requirement also applies to recent immigrants who have completed their education outside of the United States where English was not the language of instruction.

A minimum score of 600 for the paper-based test, 250 for the computer-based test, or 100 for the internet-based exam is required. Please note that acceptable scores must come directly from TOEFL and be submitted to LSAC. For additional information on TOEFL, visit http://www.ets.org/toefl .

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Once an international applicant is admitted to the law school and has paid their first seat deposit, the Director of Graduate and International Programs will contact the student to obtain an I-20 application form, certification of finance, a notarized copy of their birth certificate, passport, and when applicable, marriage license. Once all of these items are received, the Director of Graduate and International Programs will process the student's SEVIS I-20. An I-20 form is one part of the requirement for an applicant to obtain a student visa .

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Guest Essay

Harvard Should Say Less. Maybe All Schools Should.

An illustration of a graduation cap connected by its tassel to a microphone.

By Noah Feldman and Alison Simmons

Dr. Feldman is a law professor and Dr. Simmons is a professor of philosophy, both at Harvard.

Last fall, Harvard University’s leadership found itself at the center of a highly public, highly charged fight about taking an official institutional position in connection with the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.

First, critics denounced the school for being too slow to issue a statement on the matter. Then, after a statement was released by Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, and 17 other senior Harvard officials, some critics attacked it for being insufficiently forceful in condemning the Hamas attack, while others criticized it for being insufficiently forceful in condemning Israel’s retaliation.

One of the many sources of confusion at the time was that Harvard, like many other universities, did not have a formal policy on when and whether to issue official statements. In the absence of a policy, Harvard not only had to figure out what to say or not say; it also had to deal with the perception that not issuing a statement, or not issuing one fast enough, would in effect be a statement, too.

Fortunately, Harvard now does have official guidance for a policy on university statements, in the form of a report issued on Tuesday by a faculty working group on which we served together as chairs, and endorsed by the president, provost and deans. The report recommends a policy based on both principle and pragmatism, one that we hope can enable Harvard — and any other school that might consider adopting a similar policy — to flourish in our highly polarized political era.

In brief, the report says that university leaders can and should speak out publicly to promote and protect the core function of the university, which is to create an environment suitable for pursuing truth through research, scholarship and teaching. If, for example, Donald Trump presses forward with his announced plan to take “billions and billions of dollars” from large university endowments to create an “American Academy” — a free, online school that would provide an “alternative” to current institutions — Harvard’s leadership can and should express its objections to this terrible idea.

It makes sense for university leaders to speak out on matters concerning the core function of the institution: That is their area of expertise as presidents, provosts and deans. But they should not, the report says, take official stands on other matters. They should not, for instance, issue statements of solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, no matter how morally attractive or even correct that sentiment might be.

In addition, the report says, university leaders should make it clear to the public that when students and faculty members exercise their academic freedom to speak, they aren’t speaking on behalf of the university as a whole. The president doesn’t have to repeat this point with regard to every utterance made by the thousands of members of the university. But the university should clarify repeatedly, for as long as it takes to establish the point, that only its leadership can speak officially on its behalf.

This policy might remind some readers of the Kalven Report , a prominent statement of the value of academic “institutional neutrality” issued in 1967 by a University of Chicago committee chaired by the First Amendment scholar Harry Kalven Jr. But while our policy has some important things in common with the Kalven Report, which insisted that the university remain silently neutral on political and social issues, ours rests on different principles and has some different implications.

The principle behind our policy isn’t neutrality. Rather, our policy commits the university to an important set of values that drive the intellectual pursuit of truth: open inquiry, reasoned debate, divergent viewpoints and expertise. An institution committed to these values isn’t neutral, and shouldn’t be. It has to fight for its values, particularly when they are under attack, as they are now. Speaking publicly is one of the tools a university can use in that fight.

Take the use of affirmative action to achieve diversity in higher education admissions. Harvard argued in defense of this idea in the Supreme Court on several occasions — starting in 1978, when the court’s controlling opinion allowing diversity in admissions relied extensively on a brief that Harvard filed, through 2023, when the court rejected the use of race in diversity-based admissions. Harvard’s advocacy all along was far from neutral and would arguably have violated the Kalven principles. On our principles, however, Harvard was justified in speaking out forcefully in support of the method it long used to admit students, because admissions is a core function of the university.

We recognize that some observers, on both the left and the right, may interpret the timing of our report as an attempt to support some point of view they don’t like. That said, our recommended policy is designed not as a response to immediate events but as a response to the changed reality in which the university operates: a world of social media and polarized politics. Both put intense pressure on universities. Both cry out for a policy where before, none was demanded.

On social media, it can sometimes appear that anyone with a claim to Harvard affiliation speaks for the institution, even as we in the university know otherwise. We’re not naïve enough to think that just announcing a policy will change what the internet thinks. It will take repetition, emphasis and consistency to make the policy widely understood.

In an age of polarized politics, we also need a policy that will spare university leaders from having to spend all their time deciding which global and national events deserve statements and which statements from the university community merit official repudiation. On many, maybe most, important issues, no official statement made by the university could satisfy the many different constituencies on campus.

In formulating its recommendation, our faculty working group struggled with some challenges that don’t have great solutions. For example, we didn’t address, much less solve, the hard problem of when the university should or shouldn’t divest its endowment funds from a given portfolio. The Kalven Report claimed that a decision to divest is a statement in itself and so the university shouldn’t do it. In contrast, we saw divestment as an action rather than a statement the university makes. We therefore treated it as outside our mandate, even though symbolic meaning can be attached to it, just as it can to other actions (including investing in the first place). Our report encourages the university to explain its actions and decisions on investment and divestment — much as Harvard’s President Larry Bacow did in 2021 when the university decided to reduce its investments in fossil fuels, and much as President Derek Bok did when the university didn’t divest from South Africa in the 1980s — but that’s all.

Our committee members represented a wide range of academic specialties and points of view. We disagreed, and still disagree, about a lot. At a university, that’s both normal and highly desirable. Ultimately, a university is a community unified by a commitment to trying to get it right, not by a single answer to what is right in every case. Where we converged was on the belief that the university must protect and defend its critically important role and that it undermines its core function if it speaks officially on matters outside it.

Noah Feldman ( @NoahRFeldman ) is a law professor and Alison Simmons is a professor of philosophy, both at Harvard.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Elektrostal Geography. Geographic Information regarding City of Elektrostal. Elektrostal Geographical coordinates. Latitude: 55.8, Longitude: 38.45. 55° 48′ 0″ North, 38° 27′ 0″ East. Elektrostal Area. 4,951 hectares. 49.51 km² (19.12 sq mi) Elektrostal Altitude.
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