Improving Public Service Education Programs through Assessing the Performance of MPA Alumni

Abstract

Educational outcomes assessment can improve public service education programs. This article applies the Model of Learning Outcomes for Public Service Education which suggest that enabling characteristics—factors that mediate the relationship among immediate, intermediate, and longer term outcomes—can improve our understanding of public service education. A survey was conducted of alumni at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and the American University in Cairo in Cairo, Egypt. The responses from the two groups of MPA program alumni were striking: curriculum understanding and application were markedly similar, suggesting that this model is appropriate for use in different contexts.

Keywords:

• outcomes assessment
• public service education
• student performance
• learning outcomes

Notes

¹At AUC it was only in 2008 that the name of the Master's program was changed from being an MPA (Master's of Public Administration) to an MPPA (Master's of Public Policy and Administration) with corresponding changes in curriculum to reflect a more intensive focus on policy issues.

²With the exception of the donor funded project implementation units and technical offices within government organizations, see El Baradei (2006).