The Public Sector Economics Workshop
Public Investments for a Productive Future

Hosted by:
The Public Sector Economics Group
in the University of Minnesota
Department of Applied Economics

The current outlook for Minnesota’s future has Minnesotans’ demand for public goods and services continuing to outpace the government’s capacity to provide them. Increasing the productivity of Minnesota’s workforce and infrastructure can grow incomes and expand public sector resources, helping to close the gap between what we want our government to provide and what budgets allow. The 2011-12 workshop series will explore public sector economics issues, including the question of what public investments Minnesota can make today to bring about future productivity gains.

You are invited to participate in the Public Sector Economics Workshop series, featuring experts from the University, government, and non-profit organizations. Each workshop will start with a presentation, but a large share of each session will be devoted to discussion among participants.

The workshops will take place on occasional Thursday afternoons (4:00-5:15) during the academic year. We will meet at the home of the Department of Applied Economics, Ruttan Hall (formerly known as Classroom Office Building) in Room 230, on the University’s St. Paul campus. The next session, to take place on April 19, is described below. Dates for following sessions will be determined soon. Here is the schedule:

• November 17: “Nudging” children towards healthier food choices in a school cafeteria setting
• December 15: Evaluating Minnesota’s criminal corrections programs Powerpoint.pdf
• January 26: Income inequality: Concerns and Data - Robert Hagen Powerpoint.pdf; Tom Stinson Powerpoint.pdf
• February 16: Ending Homelessness in Hennepin County: Targeting and Intervention Strategies
• March 22: The impact of an aging workforce in Minnesota
• April 19: K-12 education policy reform: Role of Student Longitudinal Databases
• May 24: The state and the counties: How fiscal federalism is playing out in Minnesota

Join us for all of the sessions or as many as you like. The sessions are free of charge. RSVPs to psew@umn.edu will help us in our planning, but please attend even if you haven’t responded ahead of time. Please forward this invitation to any of your colleagues who may be able to benefit from and contribute to the workshop.

RSVP now to psew@umn.edu for session 6.

K-12 education policy reform: Role of Student Longitudinal Databases

K-12 student achievement in standardized test scores is a perennial discussion item among policy makers nationwide. Longitudinal databases that track student test scores over multiple years have played an increasing role in informing policy action. Many states use such systems, linking students to districts, schools, classrooms and teachers; more are expected to increase their use as initiatives like Race to the Top explicitly encourage such data uses. Longitudinal data have been used to track the effects of policies, schools, teacher preparatory colleges and even individual teachers.

This session will discuss the role student achievement data in policy nationwide and in Minnesota. Dr. Elton Mykerezi (Dept. of Applied Economics) will introduce current issues related to use of student data in education and describe how it is being used to track the effects of Pay-for-Performance initiatives in Minnesota. (10 min)

Dr. Benjamin Silberglitt, (Director of Software Applications, Technology Information Education Services (TIES)) will describe the role of TIES in supporting school districts with their technology needs. He will also talk about partnerships between TIES experts and University researchers to address district research needs. (30 min)

Open discussion among all participants will follow. (35 min)

Thursday, April 19, 2012
4:00-5:15 PM
Room 230 Ruttan Hall (formerly known as Classroom Office Building)
University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus
1994 Buford Ave.
St. Paul, MN

Archives of Past Seminars