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IDCE Home > Graduate Academics > CDP > Course of Study
CDP Course of Study
The master’s program in Community Development and Planning requires a minimum of 12 graduate course units. These include six core CDP units, two skills courses, and five elective courses related to your particular interests. The final requirement for a CDP degree is the successful completion of a final MA project.
We recommend students do an internship with a community organization to provide training in practical skills (two (2) internship credits are required for CDP BA/MA students). As part of your elective credits, you have the option of doing a directed reading/research with any faculty member. You can take a total of two (2) internship and/or directed study/research credits over the course of your CDP studies. If you want to take more than 2 credits of internship and/or directed study, you must submit a written request and rationale to the coordinator of the CDP program and the IDCE Director.
To register for a directed reading or research credit, first you must develop a draft proposal describing the topic, the rationale for the project, timeline, and what you want to accomplish (e.g. literature review, annotated bibliography, a brief research paper, etc). Then, share the draft proposal with the faculty member you want to work with. The faculty member will let you know if he or she feels your topic matches with his or her area of interest. If the faculty member agrees to work with you, he/she will give input into your proposal. Once both you and the faculty member are in agreement about the content of the directed study/research, then you can register for the credit.
Given the complexity and level of thought that goes into a directed study, you must begin to prepare for this well in advance of course registration. Typically, we don’t recommend taking this on until your second year of the program, when you have a clear idea of the focus for your final MA project.
CDP REQUIRED CORE COURSES
1. IDCE 344 Going Local: Perspectives on Community Development and Planning – introduces the various theories, debates, and strategies regarding the development of urban communities. Students analyze and critique traditional and emerging community development frameworks, strategies, and tools. Local community development practitioners present a “field perspective.” This course is taken during the first semester of the program.
2. IDCE 346 Practicum in Community Development and Planning – operates within a community-based participatory research framework. Working with a local community-based organization, the Practicum gives students hands-on experience in constructing a community project, community-based data gathering, project development and management, neighborhood outreach, working with clients, report writing, conflict negotiation, group work, and public speaking. Students work both as a large group, as well as in smaller teams to complete their projects. This course is taken during the second semester of the program.
3. IDCE 30250 People and Places: Theories of Community Development and Planning – deepens students understanding social, economic, and political forces that shape places and of various models and theories of community development and planning. Students learn to critique assumptions, values, and methods of approaches in order to more effectively apply them to actual cases. This course is taken during the second semester of the program.
4. Research Design and Methods – Students choose one of the following three courses (other methods course can be substitutes with permission from advisor). One research design and methods course should be taken during year one of the program:
a. IDCE 314 Research Design and Methods – covers major topics in empirical social research design and methodology: problem definition, research strategies, measurement, sampling, data collection techniques and procedures, and proposal writing.
b. IDCE 30291 Qualitative Research Design and Methods – provides an introduction to qualitative inquiry and explores the major assumptions, language, and logic of qualitative research. It emphasizes the modes of thinking and specific practices of qualitative research and focuses on conceptualizing and designing qualitative studies.
c. IDCE 390 CDP Research Seminar – advances research and skills by working on specific projects proposed by students. Students will refine their research questions or objectives, design a research methodology, and prepare a presentation of their project. This seminar focuses on the research process and the delivery of information rather than the research content. The first part of the course includes an overview of research approaches in community development and planning, as well as data interpretation, definition of assumptions, policy inferences, and assessment of contextual situations. The second part focuses on the review and discussion of students’ projects to refine the overall research design. Projects can be at any stage of development, from a preliminary proposal to a completed report or thesis.
5. IDCE 30289 Community Development Finance – introduces students to the field of community development, with a particular focus on finance. The class explores the roles of various “field actors,” such as developers, community-based community development corporations, other nonprofits, for profits, banks, local governments, and low-income residents. Students learn about the use of governmental subsidies to achieve public purposes, hot and cold commercial real estate markets, the basics of identifying financial gaps in public-spirited projects, the financial analysis necessary to attract debt and stimulate equity investment, strategies to fill the gaps, and ways to sustain projects. Familiarity with Excel spreadsheets is useful. This course is taken during the third semester of the program.
6. Students will take both of the following two ½ semester skills courses:
a. IDCE Community Needs and Resource Analysis – students develop skills in identifying and analyzing community issues through community resources and first-hand community observations and contacts. It covers a range of needs and resource assessment methods, their appropriate application, limitations, and implementation. Students learn to develop a detailed plan for assessment community needs and resources. This course is taken during the first semester of the program.
b. IDCE 30218 Negotiations in Community Development – daily compromises and negotiations characterize the community development profession. This course blends scholarly approaches to negotiation with real world case studies and the experiences of the instructor. Students engage in a simulated negotiation exercise. This course is taken during the third semester of the program.
A Sampling of Community Development Skill Courses (select 2)
A Sampling of Elective Courses (select 4 from among the Skills and Electives Courses)
Please refer to Clark University’s Academic Catalog for a full overview of course options at www.clarku.edu/academiccatalog. We encourage you to look for courses in other Clark University departments, such as Geography, Sociology, Government, Management, Education, and Economics.
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