Discounted packages available!
OPTION 1
Text + Workbook

OPTION 2
Text + Workbook + SPSS Student-Version Software

With clear and straightforward instruction, a companion workbook, and an unbeatable price, Essential Statistics affords maximum flexibility for students and instructors. Brief chapters hone in on core concepts and tools, allowing students to start working with data on the computer from the very start. Learning objectives and key term lists frame chapters while a wealth of graphics—tables, figures, and boxes—visually help explain statistical techniques and enhance skill acquisition.

In answering to helpful feedback from adopters, this second edition touts important improvements:

• A simplified organization—moving from 8 to 16 chapters—separates out statistical techniques making it easier for instructors to assign text materials throughout a semester and for students to master one skill at a time.
• Added examples and detail—from scenarios public managers and policy analysts are likely to encounter on the job—offer application of each technique in practice.
• Further explanation of research methods, now more than four chapters, offers students a great refresher or lays needed groundwork.
• New “getting started” boxes prompt students to ask themselves questions along the way that promote application and reinforce basic skills.
• Expanded coverage of crosstabs, logistic regression, and time series analysis, as well as reference to important new scholarship and enhanced discussion of research ethics and data sources.

Every chapter begins with chapter objectives and ends with a conclusion, key terms, and notes.

Section I. Introduction

1. Why Statistics for Public Managers and Analysts? Role of Data in Public Management
Competency and Proficiency
Ethics in Data Analysis and Research

Section II. Research Methods

2. Research Design
Introducing Variables and Their Relationships
Program Evaluation
Quasi-Experimental Designs in Program Evaluation

3. Conceptualization and Measurement
Measurement Levels and Scales
Conceptualization
Operationalization
Index Variables
Measurment Validity

4. Measuring Performance: Present and Future
Performance Measurement
Efficiency, Effectiveness, and More
Peering into the Future: Forecasting

5. Data Collection
Sources of Data
Sampling
Putting It Together

Section III. Descriptive Statistics

6. Central Tendency
The Mean
The Median
The Mode

7. Measures of Dispersion
Frequency Distributions
Boxplots
Standard Deviation

8. Contingency Tables
Contingency Tables
Relation and Direction
Pivot Tables

Section IV. Inferential Statistics

9. Hypothesis Testing with Chi-Square
What Is Chi-Square?
Hypothesis Testing
Rival Hypotheses: Adding a Control Variable

10. Measures of Association
Three New Concepts
PRE Alternatives to Chi-Square
Beating The Standard?: The Goodness-Of Fit Test
Discrimination and Other Tests
Do the Evaluators Agree?

11. The T-Test
T-Tests for Independent Samples
Two T-Test Variations
Nonparametric Alternatives to T-Tests

12. Simple Regression
Simple Regression
Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient
Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient

13. Multiple Regression
Model Specification
A Working Example
Further Statistics
Use of Nominal Variables
Testing Assumptions

14. Logistic Regressions
The Logistic Model
A Working Example

Section V. Further Statistics

15. Time Series Analysis
Time Series Data in Multiple Regression
Statistical Forecasting Methods: A Primer
Regression-Based Forecasting
Non-Regression Forecasting with Few Observations

16. Survey of Advanced Techniques
Analysis of Variance
Path Analysis
Survival Analysis
Factor Analysis

Appendix. Statistical Tables
A. Normal Distribution
B. Chi-Square Distribution
C. T-Distribution
D. Durbin-Watson Distribution
E. F-Test Distribution

Index

“Essential Statistics for Public Managers and Policy Analysts is a compact but comprehensive exploration of data analysis in the public context and research methods. With coverage of techniques from univariate statistics to advanced topics including forecasting, factor analysis and logit, this text is an excellent primer in statistics and their appropriate application in the public sector. The accompanying workbook highlights important concepts and points from the text with critical thinking and data-based exercises. Together, the text and workbook supply a solid overview of research methods and statistics and would be a handy reference for the student, scholar, or practitioner.”

“Evan Berman has successfully provided an introduction to statistics that is perfect for public policy and administration students who lack a mathematical background. The book is logical in it organization and presentation. The text is concise yet thorough in its discussion of a wide variety of techniques. In addition, Essential Statistics concentrates on the use and meaning of each technique and avoids unnecessary mathematical presentations. Because of its readability, I think students will hold on to this book as a reference long after they leave school.”

“This book is an excellent source for Public Management and Policy students taking introductory and advanced statistics courses. The book is organized into 5 sections that identify the topics that are covered. It also includes a workbook and CD that include exercises with applications in public management and policy analysis. The CD consists of datasets formatted for SPSS, STATA, and other popular statistical software packages. The textbook, workbook, and CD provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with statistical techniques and apply these techniques in a public setting.”

Evan M. Berman is the Huey McElveen Distinguished Professor at Louisiana State University in public administration. He has served as a policy analyst for the National Science Foundation and as a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Congress. He is also an editor of Public Performance & Management Review. His areas of expertise include quantitative methods, survey research, program evaluation, productivity, ethics and human resource management. He is the author of over 100 publications. His most recent books include Performance and Productivity in Public and Nonprofit Organizations (2006, 2nd edition) and Human Resource Management in Public Service: Paradoxes, Processes, and Problems(2006, 2nd edition), coauthored with James Bowman, Jonathan West and Montgomery Van Wart and recipient of the Best Public Sector Human Resource Book by the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations of the American Society for Public Administration.

Instructor’s Resources

Pressed for time during the semester? You’ll appreciate a wealth of helpful resources created by Evan Berman: sample syllabi, lesson plans, solutions to workbook exercises, test questions, and PowerPoint lecture slides.

Exercising Essential Statistics, 2nd Edition

Essential Statistics for Public Managers and Policy Analysts, 2nd Edition + Exercising Essential Statistics, 2nd Edition Package

Essential Statistics, 2nd Edition + Exercising Essential Statistics, 2nd Edition + SPSS Student-Version Software Package