Degrees for Education

The policy studies majors – global policy and public policy – are multidisciplinary majors, centered in economics, history, and political science, and draw upon the expertise of faculty in other disciplines. These majors are built upon a single required core of courses, which provides students with the tools essential for a coherent understanding of and participation in policy making, as well as those tools necessary to undertake a policy-oriented tutorial. These majors also integrate internships with classroom experience, and provide applied courses focused on either American policy making or policy making in a global context.

The Department of Education offers a twelve-month program to prepare students for a variety of professional careers and/or advanced study involving policy analysis, planning, and development in urban public education. The program integrates research, theory, and practice to provide students with foundational concepts and core skills in such areas as data analysis and data-based decision making, economic theory and its application in the realm of urban education policy analysis, urban politics and education, human development in an urban education context, and urban demographics. The academic coursework is grounded in practice and is complemented by a concurrent nine-month internship in a local urban education policy setting. The program draws heavily on the urban education policy expertise of the Brown-based Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Collaborations with the Education Alliance, the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, and other academic departments at Brown augment the practical and interdisciplinary aspects of the program.