Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Public Policy Institute Year Of Discovery: Building Capacity For Citizen Dialogue, Gary Petree

MTAS Publications: Full Publications

“A year of discovery” best describes the first year of Public Policy Institute (PPI) activity at the University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS).

Report Of The Commission To Assess The Threat To The United States From Emp Attack: Critical National Infrastructures, William R. Graham

George H Baker

The physical and social fabric of the United States is sustained by a system of systems; a complex and dynamic network of interlocking and interdependent infrastructures (“critical national infrastructures”) whose harmonious functioning enables the myriad actions, transactions, and information flow that undergird the orderly conduct of civil society in this country. The vulnerability of these frastructures to threats — deliberate, accidental, and acts of nature — is the focus of greatly heightened concern in the current era, a process accelerated by the events of 9/11 and recent hurricanes, including Katrina and Rita. This report presents the results of the Commission’s …

Changing Roles Of Parental Economic Resources In Children's Education Attainment, Yunju Nam, Jin Huang

Center for Social Development Research

We investigate whether the relationship between parents’ economic resources and children’s educational attainment has changed over time by comparing two cohorts from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We examine multiple measures of economic resources, including income, net worth, liquid assets, and homeownership. We employ probit regressions and Chow tests in multivariate analyses. Results show that the associations between parents’ liquid assets and college attendance became significantly stronger among the later cohort, suggesting the increasing importance of liquid assets. of particular interest is a change in the role of negative liquid assets (unsecured debt exceeding savings) in high school graduation: …

Parental Assets: A Pathway To Positive Child Educational Outcomes, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Yeong H. Yeo, Kate Irish, Min Zhan

Center for Social Development Research

A growing body of evidence suggests parental assets have positive effects on children’s well-being. Using 2004 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this study tests the effect of parental asset holding on child educational outcomes, and explores whether this relationship is mediated by parental involvement and expectations. Results indicate that assets are a significant predictor of all child academic outcomes of our study, however income is not a significant predictor for school outcomes when controlling for assets. The mediation analyses show the effect of assets on school outcomes is mediated by two of the three parenting measures: …

Academic Writing And The Pedagogical Practices Of Effective Teachers, Thomas Devere Wolsey Edd

Dissertations

Composition, particularly when academic register is required, is a complex task. Because cognitive flexibility theory explains how humans can spontaneously restructure knowledge and adapt to situational demands, it is ideally suited to the ill-structured domain of transactional writing. Global aspects related to paragraph and whole-text structure and local operations related to word and sentence-level features define academic writing. A mixed-methods design used quantitative methods for investigation of five corpora of 10th grade students' work. Qualitative methods were used to explore the means teachers used in promoting academic writing and the interactions they intended to promote via teaching cues, including prompts. …

Equal Opportunity For All?: Parental Economic Resources And Children's Educational Achievement, Yunju Nam, Jin Huang

Center for Social Development Research

We investigate the roles of parents’ economic resources in children’s educational attainment and test the liquidity constraint hypothesis. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that parents’ liquid assets have significantly positive associations with years of schooling, high school graduation, and college attendance. We find that the relationship between liquid assets and education is non-linear: children from negative liquid asset households have a higher chance of finishing high school but a lower chance of graduating college than those from zero liquid asset households. Results suggest that we should consider assets when seeking to understand educational mobility.

Summary Of 2008 Homeland Security Symposium At The National Academies: Fostering Public-Private Partnerships, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

Recent U.S. high consequence events have made clear the importance of government collaboration with industry. The benefits of such collaboration were clearly seen as a lesson from Hurricane Katrina. The resources owned and controlled by American industry dwarf those available to local, state and even the federal government departments. Better agreements and incentives to bring the full capabilities of industry squarely into the national response agenda will be indispensable in effectively responding to large-scale catastrophes. General Russel Honoré who led the National Guard response to Katrina has said, “We need the partnering between local, state, and federal governments; but the …

Slides: Beyond Rethinking: Redoing Western Water Law, Janet Neuman

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Professor Janet Neuman, Lewis & Clark Law School

17 slides

Slides: Threats To Biological Diversity: Global, Continental, Local, J. Michael Scott

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: J. Michael Scott, U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho

38 slides

The Role Of Assessment In Furthering Student Engagement, Inclusion, And Achievement, Mary Allen, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Presentations

Assessment is a vital component of any program or initiative in terms of monitoring and strengthening its impact. Assessment involves establishing outcomes (programmatic, learning, etc.), verifying that efforts are aligned with those outcomes, assessing impact, and “closing the loop” by using what is learned to make improvements. This presentation focused on characteristics of quality assessment, such as the need for it to be valid, reliable, actionable, and efficient. AAC&U’s cluster of intellectual and practical skills for a liberal education include inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; quantitative literacy; and teamwork and problem solving. Information literacy …

A Historical Analysis Of The Creation Of A Cabinet-Level Department Of Education, Shayla Lois Marie Mitchell

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

This dissertation uses historical analysis to understand the political and social conditions that allowed for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education when many congressional representatives, state governments, and citizens of the United States were ideologically against federal involvement in education. A cabinet-level Department of Education posed problems for the United States because nowhere in the nation’s Constitution is education mentioned, thus leaving education to be a function of the states according to the 10th Amendment. This dissertation looks at calls for a department of education leading up to and including the one initiated by Jimmy Carter. Conducting a …

Grounded History: A Keynote Address To The 14th Annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference, Amilcar Shabazz

Amilcar Shabazz

No abstract provided.

The Creative Economy In Small Places: Eight Cases And A Developmental Model, Jennifer L. Hutchins

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Eight case studies across New England offer understanding of the role of the creative economy in the community and economic development of rural towns and small cities. The cases include Providence and Pawtucket, RI; Burlington, VT; and Portland, Bangor, Norway, Dover-Foxcroft, and the St. John Valley, ME. Ten elements or “building blocks” are observed to be important, leading to an explanatory model for the development of the creative economy in small communities. These elements include creative people, education centers, cultural and natural amenities, business engagement, infrastructure, leadership, networks, strategies, time, and money. The creative economy in the eight communities has …

Intergenerational Educational Mobility And Child-Parent Relationships: A Response To Absolute Or Structural Mobility?, Eric Willis

All Theses

Research exploring the negative effects of intergenerational educational mobility is very common throughout the social science literature. The primary question driving this research is whether those who exceed the highest level of education attained by either of their parents have less cohesive ties with their parents than those who do not. Most of this research uses a metric of absolute mobility which directly compares the child's education to the education of their mother and father. However, if more people are receiving a college degree in the child's than in the parents' generation, it is possible that the child's mobility will …

Teachers' Beliefs About The Factors That Support Successful Second Language Acquisition Of Elementary School Students, Joann M. Mcdonald Edd

Dissertations

Second language acquisition has increased in importance in elementary schools throughout the United States due, in part, to the growing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) as well as an economic and social demand for native English speakers to learn world languages. The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teachers' beliefs regarding the factors that contribute to successfully learning a second language, whether students are ELLs learning English as a new language or English speakers learning a new language. More specifically, this study compared the opinions of elementary teachers of successful ELLs with teachers of English speakers successfully …

Asian American Children's Literature: A Qualitative Study Of Cultural Authenticity, Virginia S. Loh Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze Asian-American children's trade books in terms of their cultural authenticity and to examine the perceptions of producers (authors) and consumers (teachers) as related to the cultural authenticity of such books. I wanted to understand the role of Asian-American children's trade books in research and classroom practice and also to understand the perspectives and preconceptions of these producers and consumers. By conducting this qualitative study on the cultural authenticity of Asian-American children's trade books, I hoped to fill a gap in the current discourse knowledge which does not adequately include the Asian-American …

Change And Emerging Technologies: The Library's Role Is Supporting Teaching And Learning In A 2.0 Environment, Jeffrey G. Trzeciak, Cathy Moulder, Olga Perkovic

Cathy Moulder

Liaison librarians at McMaster University Library are actively collaborating with faculty members to incorporate emerging technologies into their classes. This session will describe three recent projects to incorporate wiki technology. The librarians played key roles to incorporate this Web 2.0 application into the curriculum of existing courses and into the requirements of a new course. The wiki initiatives strengthened partnerships with those faculty who were early adopters. Student reactions were varied and sometimes surprising. Faculty assessed student engagement and the quality of deliverables as much higher in quality than expected, suggesting that wiki use had a positive effect on learning. …

Comparing Net And Eri Standardized Exam Scores Between Baccaulureate Graduates Who Pass Or Fail The Nclex-Rn, Mary D. Bondmass, Sheniz Moonie, Susan Kowalski

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

In the United States, nursing programs are commonly evaluated by their graduates success on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The purpose of this paper is to describe a change in NCLEX-RN success rates following the addition of standardized exams throughout our program's curriculum, and to compare these exam scores between graduates who pass NCLEX-RN and those who do not. Our results indicate an 8.5% change (p < 0.000) in the NCLEX-RN pass rate from our previous 5-year mean pass rate, and significant differences in standardized test scores for those who pass the NCLEX-RN compared to those who do not (p < 0.03). We conclude that our selected standardized exam scores are able to significantly identify graduates who are more likely to pass NCLEX-RN than not.

Institutionalizing Community-Based Learning And Research: The Case For External Networks, Elizabeth Shrader, Mary Anne Saunders, Sam Marullo, Sylvia Benatti, Kathleen Maas Weigert

Sociology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Conversations continue as to whether and how community-based learning and research (CBLR) can be most effectively integrated into the mission and practice of institutions of higher education (IHEs). In 2005, eight District of Columbia- (DC-) area universities affiliated with the Community Research and Learning (CoRAL) Network engaged in a planning and evaluation exercise, applying a “rapid assessment” method to gauge baseline levels of CBLR institutionalization on each campus, envisioning progress in key areas, and proposing ways in which the CoRAL Network could achieve institutionalization goals. Aggregate analysis of the assessment data suggests several areas of similarity across extremely diverse university …

Status Of Latino Education In Massachusetts: A Report, Nicole Lavan, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Educational reform has brought great improvements in educational outcomes for Massachusetts students. In the past decade, achievement scores have risen for all students in Massachusetts; today the Commonwealth ranks first among all states in the overall National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. However, it also ranks among the five states with the widest “gap” in achievement between white and Latino students in both NAEP Math and Reading. These gaps in achievement show that the benefits are not reaching all children. Latinos especially, but also African American children, are often left behind in a state with excellent academic institutions. Examining …

Who's Caring For The Kids? The Status Of The Wages And Working Conditions Of The Early Childhood Workforce In Minnesota, Jennifer L. Andres

Culminating Projects in Child and Family Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine the wages and benefits that Minnesota center-based early childhood teachers received during 2007. The study utilized a questionnaire that was distributed to a random sample of licensed, center-based child care programs in Minnesota. Five hundred programs were randomly selected and surveyed with a response of247 programs (48.4%). The results were compared to the results of a similar study completed in 1996.

Results of the study indicated that a large percentage of the teachers (45%) still received less than $10.00 per hour for their work. Only 5% of the teachers earned $18.00-$20.00 per …

A New Approach To Flood Education (Booklet), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Engines Of Inequality: Class, Race, And Family Structure, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

The past 30 years have witnessed a dramatic divergence in family structure by social class, income, education, and race. This article reviews the data on these trends, explores their significance, and assesses social scientists’ recent attempts to explain them. The article concludes that society-wide changes in economic conditions or social expectations cannot account for these patterns. Rather, for reasons that are poorly understood, cultural disparities have emerged by class and race in attitudes and behaviors surrounding family, sexuality, and reproduction. These disparities will likely fuel social and economic inequality and contribute to disparities in children’s life prospects for decades to …

Sex Education Policy In Florida: Strategies For Change, Jenna Cawley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sex education policies and programs in Florida are largely dominated by the abstinence-only approach. This paper makes the case that abstinence-only education is a failing policy in Florida, and evaluates strategies advocates may use in order to accomplish reform. Three different strategies are evaluated: countywide school district reform, statewide rejection of federal abstinence-only funding, and statewide standardization of sex education via legislation. Contrasts are drawn between all three strategies with regard to their potential impact on sex education policy in Florida, viability, and the challenges they present to advocates. This paper concludes that statewide standardization of sex education in Florida …

Using 'The Autobiography Of Malcolm X' To Teach Introductory Sociology, Brent D. Harger, Tim Hallett

Sociology Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we make the case for using The Autobiography of Malcolm X to teach introductory sociology classes. While The Autobiography of Malcolm X is an autobiography and not a novel, we summarize the literature on using novels in sociology and compare this literature to our own experiences using autobiographies in the classroom. We then describe how autobiographies are particularly helpful for introducing students to the concept of the ‘‘sociological imagination’’ before highlighting this with an in-class exercise. Finally, we discuss student feedback and some of the drawbacks to using autobiographies and the extent to which these drawbacks can …

Early Childhood Education And Care In Ireland: Getting It Right For Children, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Conference Papers

Seminar proceedings edited by Noirin Hayes and Siobhan Bradley. Contains two presentations: Beyond Childcare, Markets and Technical Practice – or Repoliticising Early Childhood by Peter Moss; Irish Approaches to ECCE – Keeping Politics Out of the Nursery by Maura Adshead & Gerardine Neylon.

Who Joins The Military?: A Look At Race, Class, And Immigration Status, Amy Lutz

Sociology - All Scholarship

This article discusses the history of participation of the three largest racial–ethnic groups in the military: whites, blacks, and Latinos. It empirically exa-mines the likelihood of ever having served in the military across a variety of criteria including race–ethnicity, immigrant generation, and socioeconomic status, concluding that significant disparities exist only by socioeconomic status. Finally, the article offers an in-depth look at Latinos in the military, a group whose levels of participation in the armed services have not been thoroughly investigated heretofore. The findings reveal that, among Latinos, those who identify as “Other Hispanic” are more likely to have served in …

Middle School Teacher Acceptance Of Interventions For Adhd, Linda Latsko Castenova

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The study explored the relationship between middle school teacher knowledge of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), their knowledge of common interventions for ADHD, and their perception of treatment acceptability. The study also investigated teacher characteristics and their relationship to teacher knowledge of ADHD and their ratings of acceptability of interventions. Fifty-eight general education middle school teachers completed a survey containing demographic information, an ADHD knowledge scale, and a survey on interventions for students with ADHD. Results indicated that teachers scored an average of 58% correct on the Knowledge of Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (KADDS), scoring significantly higher on the Symptoms/Diagnosis subscale compared …

Effective Pre-School And Primary Education 3-11 Project (Eppe 3-11) - Final Report From The Primary Phase: Pre-School, School And Family Influences On Children's Development During Key Stage 2 (7-11), Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda Taggart

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 project (EPPE 3-11) has studied pre-school and primary school experiences for a national sample of approximately 2,800 children in England between the ages of 3 and 11 years. This Research Brief summarises the key findings up to the end of primary school. It focuses on the relationships between child, family, home, pre-school and primary school characteristics and pupils' subsequent cognitive (Reading/English and Mathematics) and social/behavioural outcomes ('Self-regulation', 'Pro-social' behaviour, 'Hyperacti vity' and 'Anti-social' behaviour) at ages 10 and 11 in Years 5 and 6 of primary school. It also reports on associations between …

Influencing Policy And Practice Through Research On Early Childhood Education, Brenda Taggart, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Pam Sammons

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents the scientific evidence from one study that has informed Early Years policy in the U.K. It begins with a description of the policy context in the early 1990s and shows how research was used to inform a decade of policy innovation. There have been many studies of ways that research has informed practice but fewer on instances of research shaping policy. This paper is one step in that direction, as advocated by Whitty (2007) and Huw, Nutley and Smith (2001).