District Segregation,Race Legislation,and Black Enrollment in Charter Schools*

Objective. This article examines how segregation at the school level within districts and charter school legislation predict black enrollment levels at local charter schools. Methods. This study uses the Schools and Staffing Survey Charter School Data 1999–2000, Common Core of Data, and a unique data set of district test scores to estimate OLS regression models of black enrollment in charter schools on district racial segregation and race provisions in charter school legislation. Results. Findings suggest that segregated school districts, those districts where whites and blacks are more unevenly distributed among schools, have a larger percentage of blacks enrolled in local charter schools than districts where schools are integrated. In addition, charter schools in states that do not have a racial clause have a smaller percent of blacks in their charter schools. Conclusion. Findings suggest that black enrollment in charter schools is a function of district segregation and state policy.     

University-community partnerships in gerontological social work: building consensus around student learning

This article will demonstrate how schools of social work can collaborate with community agencies to provide a comprehensive and enriching educational experience for both student interns and participating agencies. An innovative partnership of a state school of social work with community agencies leading to a cutting-edge geriatric field education program is described. Case examples are used to illustrate the benefits of these partnerships, as well as challenges partners overcame in forging and sustaining partnerships. Necessary components of partnership development are detailed.     

Promoting leadership skills in field education:a university-community partnership to bring macro and micro together in gerontological field placements

Social workers are being called upon to utilize a wide range of skills in practice including not only skills of working directly with clients, but also skills related to practice in organizations such as program management, inter-organizational cooperation, research and evaluation. This article describes an innovative geriatric field education program that prepares social workers with leadership skills in both direct service and management, and engages community agencies as both sites for student learning and as beneficiaries of their professional development projects. Case examples are provided and benefits and challenges to the model are discussed.     

Domestic Violence and Substance Use: Tackling Complexity

Domestic violence and substance use are issues which pervadesocial work practice, yet are often on the margins of the knowledgebase for practitioners and their managers. This article providesan overview of the literature on substance use and domesticviolence, highlighting the problems with the separation of bothpractice and policy in these areas. Research on substance useand the needs of women survivors of domestic violence are explored,alongside the more substantial literature on perpetrators ofdomestic violence and patterns of substance use. The problemsof a simplistic analysis which suggest that there is a causallink between substance use and domestic violence are highlighted.Using data from an on-going research project, the sources ofthe continuing and dysfunctional separation of work in theseareas are explored.     

A longitudinal study of depressiveness in children in public care

Rajhvajn Bulat L. A longitudinal study of depressiveness in children in public care Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 412–423 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. The aim of this article is to analyse the challenges involved when making longitudinal observations of depressiveness in children raised in public care. The first measurement comprised 375 children from children's homes and foster families; however, most of the results are based on an analysis of the 139 children who participated in both parts of the research. We used the Child Depression Inventory and the anxiety/depression subscales of Youth Self Report and Child Behaviour Checklist as measures of depressiveness. The comparison of results from the first and second measurements showed that depressiveness in children in public care decreased over time. Children who grew up in children homes were, in the first measurement, more depressed than those living in foster families, but after five years that difference had disappeared. Furthermore, decrease in depressiveness is predominantly associated with less frequent delinquent, aggressive or hyperactive behaviour, less withdrawal and better control over uncomfortable emotions.     

Child custody issues and co‐occurrence of intimate partner violence and child maltreatment: controversies and points of agreement amongst practitioners

The situation of families undergoing separation in a context of co‐occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment raises certain issues related to child custody. The results presented in this paper were collected and analysed within the framework of a qualitative study aiming to identify the principal points of agreement and the main controversies amongst practitioners in several different types of organizations. Focus groups were held with a total of 43 practitioners from six different settings concerned with child custody in cases of co‐occurrence of IPV and child maltreatment. Although they agreed on the importance of ensuring the safety of victims of violence, their views diverged on three points: (1) the importance of preserving the father–child relationship; (2) collaboration between voluntary organizations and semi‐voluntary or legal agencies; and (3) consideration of cultural differences.     

The Prison Industry: Carceral Expansion and Employment in U.S. Counties, 1969–1994*

Objectives. Despite the interest that social scientists have displayed in the rising rate of incarceration, little attention has been devoted to understanding its consequences for local areas. This is an important omission because prison construction has become a component of state and local economic development schemes. Indeed, there is a widespread belief that prison construction provides significant economic benefits to local areas. Methods. We analyze data on all existing and new prisons in the United States since 1960 and examine the impact of these prisons on the pace of growth (as measured by public, private, and total employment growth) in U.S. counties from 1969 to 1994. To our knowledge, our study is the first comprehensive and longitudinal assessment of the impact of prison construction on local areas. Results. We find no evidence that prison expansion has stimulated economic growth. In fact, we provide evidence that prison construction has impeded economic growth in rural counties that have been growing at a slow pace. Conclusion. Despite sharp ideological and intellectual differences, the critics and the advocates of the prison construction boom share the assumption that prisons can contribute to local growth, especially in hard‐pressed local areas. This belief flies in the face of mounting evidence that state and local initiatives rarely have a significant impact on growth; this belief is also contradicted by our analyses.     

Development and Consideration of Global Policies for Managing the Future Risks of Poliovirus Outbreaks: Insights and Lessons Learned Through Modeling

The success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative promises to bring large benefits, including sustained improvements in quality of life (i.e., cases of paralytic disease and deaths avoided) and costs saved from cessation of vaccination. Obtaining and maintaining these benefits requires that policymakers manage the transition from the current massive use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) to a world without OPV and free of the risks of potential future reintroductions of live polioviruses. This article describes the analytical journey that began in 2001 with a retrospective case study on polio risk management and led to development of dynamic integrated risk, economic, and decision analysis tools to inform global policies for managing the risks of polio. This analytical journey has provided several key insights and lessons learned that will be useful to future analysts involved in similar complex decision-making processes.     

Assessing the Effect of Model Misspecifications on Parameter Estimates in Structural Equation Models

Model misspecifications may have a systematic effect on parameters, causing biases in their estimates. In the application of structural equation models, every interesting model is fallible. When simultaneously evaluating a model, it is of interest to study whether all parameters are affected by a misspecification. This paper provides three procedures for evaluating such an effect: (1) analyzing the path, (2) using a functional relationship, and (3) using a significance test. Analyzing the path is illustrated through a confirmatory factor model. This method is ad hoc but intuitive. A more rigorous approach is built upon the concept of orthogonality of two sets of parameters. When parameter a is orthogonal to parameter b, omitting parameter b will not affect the estimation of parameter a. The functional relationship of two sets of parameters is used to check their orthogonality. The distribution of the difference between estimates based on different models is obtained, which provides a Hausman–like way to check significant parameter differences that are due to biases. Examples illustrate that these procedures can provide valuable information on identifying parameter estimates that are systematically affected by a model misspecification.