Social Welfare Policy and Services I: Assignment Instructions<\/p>\n
Written Assignment: Income Inequality briefing paper<\/p>\n
Length about 4-5 double spaced pages (with table or chart inserted)<\/p>\n
The purpose of this short written assignment is to <\/p>\n
Expose students to rudimentary skills in data analysis (reading a statistical table, employing simple comparison and contrast techniques, recognizing data patterns); <\/p>\n
Help them recognize emerging \u201cstories\u201d (i.e. how we characterize \u2013 in narrative form – what data is telling us about an important issue) in tables, charts and graphs; <\/p>\n
Critically reflect upon the meaning and validity of these stories and\u2026 <\/p>\n
Give them an opportunity to apply a social justice assessment of the stories embedded witin the data one is examining. <\/p>\n
Instructions: <\/p>\n
Pick one of the featured tables and or charts below (or go to the Economic Policy Institute website and pick out an economic inequality relevant table, chart or graph that interests you).<\/p>\n
Before you start writing your paper\u2026<\/p>\n
Look at the title of the table\/chart. <\/p>\n
What is it about? What or who is the \u201cunit of analysis?\u201d what kind of data is being featured: income, wages, accumulated wealth, something non-monetary? <\/p>\n
Carefully examine the data reflected in the table \/ chart: <\/p>\n
Are we looking at a comparison of individuals or groups in a single point in time or are we looking at trend data over more than one, or even many points in time? <\/p>\n
Look for patterns in the data; compare and contrast different categories. Look deeply at the chart\/ table and ask yourself: what is being compared here? What patterns do I see? What data stands out from the pattern? what SURPRISES am I finding in the data? <\/p>\n
Now step back from the chart or table and ask: what is the story? Why do the authors want me to look at this table? Is it telling me something new and important about an important issue? What is it?<\/p>\n
Draft a quick outline of your paper and begin writing, being sure to address the following: <\/p>\n
Describe the chart \/ table. Note its title, the categories in the rows and in the columns (or the X and Y axes on a chart or graph), <\/p>\n
Describe the type of data you are examining and why it is interesting to you and important for the reader to understand. <\/p>\n
Highlight the most important patterns and\/or comparisons that stand out to you. <\/p>\n
Interpret the table or chart: what \u201cstory\u201d emerges from the patterns and\/or comparisons? What is the table or chart telling us? What point is it making? Keep in mind, some tables make multiple points. You don\u2019t have to say everything about your selected table or chart; just whatever you think is most salient and interesting. <\/p>\n
Option 1: Comparing Incomes among \u201cquintiles\u201d of the income distribution over time. This table shows us a distribution of all family units in the nation, by income. The table presents the distribution as \u201cquintiles\u201d (in other words, it groups families into 1\/5th sized slices of the population. That is: the lowest fifth = incomes from the bottom to the 20th percentile, the second fifth = families with incomes from the 20th percentile to the 40th percentile and so on\u2026. Note that the table also includes at the right hand side a breakdown of the top quintile. <\/p>\n
Option 2: Looking only at the GAINS in income btw the income groups from 1979 to 2007. So to be clear, it\u2019s not saying that the lowest quintile families are only making $1800 a year. It\u2019s saying their real income only increased by $1800 btw \u201979 and 2007. Also note that like the table above, it breaks the population down into quintiles, but gives us a breakout of the top quintile. <\/p>\n
Option 3: This table allows you to do comparisons of income by race at different points in time btw 1947 and 2009.<\/p>\n
Median family income (2009 dollars) by race\/ethnic group, 1947-2009<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a % of white family income<\/p>\n
Year<\/p>\n
White<\/p>\n
Black*<\/p>\n
Hispanic**<\/p>\n
Black<\/p>\n
Hispanic<\/p>\n
1947<\/p>\n
$26,519<\/p>\n
$13,558<\/p>\n
n.a.<\/p>\n
51.1%<\/p>\n
n.a.<\/p>\n
1967<\/p>\n
46,234<\/p>\n
27,373<\/p>\n
n.a.<\/p>\n
59.2%<\/p>\n
n.a.<\/p>\n
1973<\/p>\n
54,348<\/p>\n
31,366<\/p>\n
37,606<\/p>\n
57.7%<\/p>\n
69.2%<\/p>\n
1979<\/p>\n
56,279<\/p>\n
31,869<\/p>\n
39,014<\/p>\n
56.6%<\/p>\n
69.3%<\/p>\n
1989<\/p>\n
60,085<\/p>\n
33,753<\/p>\n
39,160<\/p>\n
56.2%<\/p>\n
65.2%<\/p>\n
1995<\/p>\n
59,598<\/p>\n
36,293<\/p>\n
34,337<\/p>\n
60.9%<\/p>\n
57.6%<\/p>\n
2000<\/p>\n
66,050<\/p>\n
41,945<\/p>\n
42,899<\/p>\n
63.5%<\/p>\n
64.9%<\/p>\n
2007<\/p>\n
66,649<\/p>\n
41,527<\/p>\n
41,965<\/p>\n
62.3%<\/p>\n
63.0%<\/p>\n
2009<\/p>\n
62,545<\/p>\n
38,409<\/p>\n
39,730<\/p>\n
61.4%<\/p>\n
63.5%<\/p>\n
Income Growth (% growth) over different time periods<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1947-73<\/p>\n
105%<\/p>\n
131%<\/p>\n
n.a.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1973-2009<\/p>\n
15%<\/p>\n
22%<\/p>\n
6%<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1973-89<\/p>\n
11%<\/p>\n
8%<\/p>\n
4%<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1989-2000<\/p>\n
10%<\/p>\n
24%<\/p>\n
10%<\/p>\n
2000-09<\/p>\n
-5%<\/p>\n
-8%<\/p>\n
-7%<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Option 4: Examine differences in income by Family Type: Note this table allows you to compare a whole bunch of stuff. There are many \u201cstories\u201d here. Note the bottom half of the table reports the relative size of each family type over time. The term \u201cshare of families\u201d tells us what percentage of ALL families is represented by each family TYPE. <\/p>\n
OPTION FIVE: <\/p>\n
You can also go to the Economic Policy Institute Website called \u201cThe State of Working America\u201d and peruse any of the tables there to do your analysis. <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.stateofworkingamerica.org\/<\/p>\n
Check out the \u201ccharts and tables\u201d drop-down tab and the \u201cTrends\u201d drop down tab. Look particularly under the topic headings of \u201cincome and poverty\u201d <\/p>\n
But the whole website is a rich treasure trove of data on a wide variety of economic and racial justice issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social Welfare Policy and Services I: Assignment Instructions Written Assignment: Income Inequality briefing paper Length about 4-5 double spaced pages (with table or chart inserted) The purpose of this short written assignment is to Expose students to rudimentary skills in data analysis (reading a statistical table, employing simple comparison and contrast techniques, recognizing data patterns); […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-107150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}