FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Danny Chand was interested in the role of nonprofit organizations in the legislative process. Caleb Rose became curious about the performance of students attending charter schools in east Arkansas.

Chand and Rose, who both earned their doctorates last summer, are the winners of the 2013 University of Arkansas Public Policy Program Distinguished Dissertation Award.

“It’s a huge honor to be chosen for the distinguished dissertation award along with Caleb, a friend whom I greatly respect,” Chand said. “The Public Policy Ph.D. program has opened so many doors for me, and I couldn’t thank enough all the wonderful faculty and staff who helped make my time at the U of A such a wonderful experience.” 

Rose said, “I am excited and humbled to not only receive this recognition, but also share it with Dr. Chand, a bright colleague and friend.”

Launched in 1999, the public policy doctoral program at the U of A focuses on training leaders who will directly affect policy issues relevant to the people of Arkansas, the region and the nation. As part of the educational and service mission of the University of Arkansas, the program provides a forum for the consideration of policy issues by students, faculty, and the larger community.

Chand’s dissertation is titled “Interest group Scorecards and Legislative Satisfaction: Using Ratings to Explore the Private Bias in Public Policy.” After graduation, Chand joined the faculty at New Mexico State University last fall as an assistant professor of government.

“Before I started my Ph.D., I was working with charitable and political nonprofits,” Chand said. “I worked for a food bank and an environmental nonprofit, along with some other positions. So I wanted to study some aspect of nonprofits involved with the policymaking process. I thought using legislator ratings — often referred to as ‘scorecards’ — filled a need within the interest group literature, which has suffered from not having large, institutionally support datasets that other topics in political science enjoy.

William Schreckhise, an associate professor of political science at the U of A, said Chand’s dissertation “provides a much broader and richer understanding of how interest groups operate” than previous studies.

“Journalists and politicians have long asserted that a few special interest groups dominate Congress, and scholars who study public policy have examined this topic for several decades,” Schreckhise said. “As a result, we have several decades’ worth of research that tries to examine the impact of campaign contributions and lobbying on how members of Congress vote on legislation. But this line of research has only been able to look at a limited number of interest groups activities on a small number of political issues.

“Danny’s measures allow us, for the first time, to examine whether or not dozens of groups got what they wanted on a very large number of issues,” he said.

Rose’s dissertation is titled “The Academic Impacts of Attending a KIPP Charter School in Arkansas.” Rose currently teaches mathematics at Premier High School, a new charter school on the grounds of Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock.

Rose became intrigued by the KIPP Delta Public Schools network while taking a graduate course taught by Gary Ritter, professor of education reform and public policy and holder of the Endowed Chair in Education Policy. 

KIPP, or the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a free, open-enrollment charter school system with 141 schools across the country, including three in Helena and one in Blytheville.

“Then, after I started working at the Office for Education Policy at the university, I was immediately tasked to answer some questions for one of our stakeholders, who also happened to be a state senator from Blytheville — the late Steve Bryles — who was interested in KIPP school performance in Helena as compared to the surrounding school districts in the region. So I started digging up some test score data, and looked into the KIPP model more deeply. I got really interested in it at that point.”

Ritter, founder of the Office for Education Policy, said Rose’s research was of particular significance to the education policy community in Arkansas.

“Caleb was able to make a reasonable and defensible estimate of the impact of KIPP schools, using performance in both reading and mathematics,” Ritter said. “Most studies of KIPP school-effectiveness are conducted in urban areas. Caleb’s study is significant because of its focus on a KIPP school in a rural area. There are, of course, many reasons to be concerned about the quality of education being delivered to students in disadvantaged rural areas. It is critically important that policymakers and researchers consider strategies to improve educational opportunities for these students.”

Chand and Rose each received $250 for their awards.

Approximately 55 students are currently enrolled in the public policy doctoral program. Located in the university’s Graduate School, it draws upon the strength of academic departments across three colleges on campus — the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Health Professions and the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences. Its interdisciplinary approach centers on the essential skills and readings in policy process and policy analysis.

Graduates may pursue a variety of occupations in the non-profit, public and private sectors, including legislative aides, program directors, policy analysts, program analysts, teachers, researchers, advocates, and lobbyists.