Class Descriptions

Advanced Statistics

SW673

Credits:	3
Prerequisites:	None

Pathway Associations

Community Change
Global
Interpersonal Practice
Mgmt & Leadership
Policy & Political	Elective
Program Evaluation	Elective (Host)
Older Adults
Children & Families

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce students to statistics and statistical methods. It is intended and designed for students who already have some familiarity with statistics. Students in this course will acquire the skills to create and comprehend statistical reports related to program evaluation and research practice. Students will be able to assess the value and limitations of measures of central tendency (means, medians and modes), rates, and statistical estimates such as correlations and regression parameters. This course will help students develop the ability to use advanced quantitative methods to describe and analyze real world situations in social work settings and to make ethical inferences and decisions based on the statistical results. Students will learn to choose methods of statistical analysis to improve social policy decisions, service delivery, and intervention programs. Students will learn to understand and use appropriate language with their statistical analyses to clarify meaning and to explain the inferences (e.g. causal inferences) that can be appropriately made from specific data. 

Objectives

1. Analyze extant research for its use and abuse of outcomes and measures of social justice, social change, and diversity.
2. Construct rates, means, proportions and other simple statistics and interpret them appropriately.
3. Ethically use and ethically report on the results of statistical analyses.
4. Identify appropriate simple statistical methods to use in policy and program evaluation situations.
5.
6. Conduct basic statistical analyses of common policy and program evaluation situations.
7. Use basic descriptive statistics and test simple hypotheses to help answer policy or evaluation questions.
8. Construct meaningful and readable charts, tables, and graphs of appropriate data.
9. Prepare written, oral and visual reports for different audiences using simple and appropriate statistical language.

Design

This course will use lectures, computer lab exercises, applied statistical exercises, case studies, and small group exercises to convey relevant content.

Intensive Focus on Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice (PODS)

This course integrates PODS content and skills with a special emphasis on the identification of theories, practice and/or policies that promote social justice, illuminate injustices and are consistent with scientific and professional knowledge. Through the use of a variety of instructional methods, this course will support students developing a vision of social justice, learn to recognize and reduce mechanisms that support oppression and injustice, work toward social justice processes, apply intersectionality and intercultural frameworks and strengthen critical consciousness, self-knowledge and self-awareness to facilitate PODS learning.