A Letter to your Representative 3340 Term Paper Assignment This project will giv

A Letter to your Representative
3340 Term Paper Assignment
This project will give you an opportunity to develop, apply, and synthesize cognitive development theories as you argue your position on a public policy related to cognitive growth and development.
You will be asked to choose a public policy, identify a representative to write to, critique the policy, and argue your position on the policy using your knowledge of cognitive development theories and concepts.
All the policies that you can choose from can easily be connected to psychology and cognition. Use this assignment as an opportunity to research a topic that is related to your career aspirations!
Directions:
CHOOSE A PUBLIC POLICY: A public policy is a government rule or law that affects the population at large. Public policies are government actions that attempt to solve problems in society. For example, a public policy might try to address the problem of student loans by creating a loan forgiveness program. For this assignment choose one of the following public policies. I have helped to identify the issue and give you at least one place to read more about it…. the rest of the research is up to you! Also note, there are different angles or topics within these issues that you can take on. Feel free to email me to clarify the issue that you choose and the direction or specification that you want to take. Education: State Funded Preschool Spots
The issue: There are fewer preschool spots available than there are students that need, especially low-income students but additional spots are very expensive. Read more: https://co.chalkbeat.org/2019/11/1/21109160/colorado-gov-polis-calls-for-6-000-more-state-funded-preschool-spots-in-2020-budget-request
Education: school choice program The issue Children can either be zoned into their neighborhood school or can choice into a different neighborhood school. Which program is better? Read more: https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/the-ongoing-debate-over-school-choice
Education: Opportunity gap
The issue Children of minority status achieve less academically than their white counterparts due to less opportunities available for them. How can we close the opportunity gap (used to be called the achievement gap)? Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/30/denver-public-schools-national-test-scores/
IDENTIFY YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: Which policy maker will you write to? Are you going to write to the governor, your state senator, the budget finance committee, the board of education, or someone else? The person you choose to write to should have a current role in policy making around your topic. Address your letter to the individual(s) that you have chosen. (I live in Colorado) IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: Start your letter by introducing the public policy that you have chosen.
What is the current policy?
What is the problem facing society?
What is the policy debate? Explain both “sides” of the issue.
Why are changes to the policy necessary?
USE CONTENT FROM THIS CLASS IN THIS SECTION. Cite your sources and provide references for your citations.
SUGGEST A POLICY SOLUTION: What policy change are you suggesting and why? Describe what you think your representative should do to resolve the issue. You are trying to convince them to do something. What are you convincing them to do and why should they do it? Your solution might be to maintain the current policy arguing against those that want to change it or it could be a new policy you are proposing,
SUPPORT YOUR SOLUTION: USE CONTENT FROM THIS CLASS IN THIS SECTION. Cite your sources and provide references for your citations.
Assignment Details:
LETER FORMATTING: this paper is a letter. It should follow letter format. Follow the APA style cover letter formatting!!!!!!!!!!
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/research-publication/cover-letters
. Note that the content in the letter will not be the same as a cover letter, but the style can be! APA STYLE CITATIONS & REFERENCES: You will need to find a minimum of six sources for this paper. The sources must be journal articles, books, or chapters from books. Your course textbook should also be one of the sources.
To find additional sources for your paper, you will need to visit the library website, database, or visit Google Scholar. All sources need to be reputable academic sources (no webpages, wiki’s or blogs).
Be sure to use APA STYLE in text citations for your sources and provide APA STYLE references for those sources. The reference page can go at the end of your letter, after your signature.
LETTER OUTLINE: Use the following outline to help you write your letter.
1 paragraph general introduction
2-3 paragraphs summarizing public policy issue, in general
2-3 paragraphs explaining the debate
1-2 paragraphs explaining why changes are necessary (use course content in this section)
2-3 paragraphs explaining your solution (use course content in this section) Are you proposing a new policy or recommending the representative maintain the current policy? Explain.
2-3 paragraphs explaining why they should make the policy change your proposing or keep the current policy as is (use course content in this section)
1 conclusion paragraph
Reference page
WRITING TIPS:
NO DIRECT QUOTES ARE ALLOWED. I want you to practice paraphrasing rather than using direct quotes. These sources will help you understand paraphrasing better: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/paraphrasing/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/1/ CITE OFTEN (often, often, often). See one of the following websites for additional information about APA format or writing help in general.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
https://apastyle.apa.org
https://www.msudenver.edu/writectr/