While the first phase in examining some public sector problems might require quantitative design to help you further define your problem, you may also need to employ quantitative design to

examine the relationships between variables. Using your refined research problem, describe how some aspect of this issue could be addressed using explanatory research designs. Choose one of

the following three design methods to respond to this discussion:

An experimental design.
A quasi-experimental design.
A nonexperimental design.

Remember to identify variables, causality, and external factors that may muddy the results.

Validity is a concept that must be considered in research designs. Ignoring validity concerns can result in findings that are open to question. Define the term validity as it refers to research in

the field of public administration. Analyze how this could impact your research problem both positively and negatively. Using your research problem as an example, describe internal and

external sources of invalidity in research strategies. Suggest ways to control for these threats to validity.

Week 4
One way to understand and critique your own use of measures and scales is to examine the scales applied in existing studies. Using the two articles that you located in the study activity for

this unit, analyze the appropriateness of the measurements and measurement scales used, as well as their reliability, operational validity, and sensitivity. For each study, either support the use

of measurement tools or provide suggestions for alternative measures.

This should be a very robust discussion. As this is the only discussion this week, you will be expected to go into significant depth.