Award Date

8-6-2010

Degree Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Department

Public Administration

Advisor 1

Christopher Stream

Number of Pages

26

Abstract

According to a July 2010 survey conducted by CNBC Nevada ranks 34th in its quality of life. Contributing to this low ranking are remarkable statistics that rank Nevada as the highest state in the nation regarding the percentage of 18 to 24 years olds who are not high school graduates and for 16 to 19 year olds who are not in school and not working. In addition, Nevada currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 14%. Recognizing the need to increase the education and work skill levels for Nevada’s youth, and in an effort to remediate unacceptable educational trends, in 2005, the Nevada Public Education Foundation launched Ready for Life, a cross-agency endeavor based on the groundbreaking “Connected by 25” research conducted at Stanford University. The research found that “disconnected” youth without meaningful ties to school or work by time that they were of age 25 would most likely remain “disconnected” through their adult lives, causing a significant financial burden to society. At this crucial nexus in Nevada’s economy and public education, state and local policymakers must discover more cost effective and efficient policies. This paper sought out other state’s “best practices” policies, with research revealing that cross-agency data sharing is a cost effective and efficient strategy, which increases the capacity of agencies such as Ready for Life to better identify and serve client needs. Data sharing also offers flexible policy alternatives where consideration by legislators can occur on an incremental or comprehensive basis.

Keywords

Interagency coordination; Nevada; Quality of life; Youth

Disciplines

Education Policy | Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation | Public Affairs | Sociology

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Comments

Summary and Appendix attached.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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