The Issue of Schools as Social Systems: Socialization Effects as Inferred from Lengths of Membership*

The critical limitation of the interpretation of schools as independent normative systems is the failure to demonstrate that observed student orientations are acquired in schools rather than in other settings such as the home or community. The problem is approached here as a question of whether students' orientations vary with lengths of membership in the same school organization. Data were examined for 7,954 students in 19 schools which contained grade-lengths 7-9, 7-12, 9-12, and 10-12. The analyses indicated that the distinctiveness of school normative climates is slightly but positively associated with lengths of school membership when school size is controlled. While schools can be viewed as relatively distinct systems, they should also be seen as highly permeable in the midst of their community and home environments.     

Has Voluntary Association Activity Declined? Cross‐national Analyses for Fifteen Countries*

Les études antérieures concernant l'adhésion volontaire à des associations aux États‐Unis ont menéà des conclusions contradictoires concernant la diminution du membership. Nous analysons ici des participations nominales et actives à des associations à l'échelle du Canada, des États‐Unis ainsi que de 13 autres pays au début des années 1980 et au début des années 1990. Des comparaisons en fonction du temps sont faites, incluant les syndicats et les organisations religieuses, et excluant ces groupes, avant et après des'contrôles. Les résultats fournissent peu de preuves de déclin, pour le Canada, les États‐Unis ou les autres nations, en particulier pour des adhésions actives. Sans et avec contrôles, les États‐Unis, la République fédérale d'Allemagne et les Pays‐Bas font état d'augmentations significatives d'adhésions actives à des syndicats. Seule l'Espagne affiche des baisses substantielles d'adhésions actives au cours de cette période. Mis à part quelques exceptions, le tableau général en est un de stabilité, sans changement significatif. Previous studies of voluntary association membership in the United States have generated inconsistent conclusions about whether membership has declined. We analyse here both nominal and active association involvements for national samples from Canada, the U.S., and 13 other societies in the early 1980s and early 1990s. Temporal comparisons are made, with union and religious memberships both included and excluded, before and after controls. The results provide little evidence of decline, for Canada, the U.S., or the other nations, particularly for working memberships. Both without and with controls, the U.S., West Germany, and the Netherlands exhibit significant increases in working memberships. Only Spain shows substantial declines in working memberships over the period. With few exceptions, the overall pattern is one of stability, or no significant change.     

Modeling material stress using integrated Gaussian Markov random fields

The equations of a physical constitutive model for material stress within tantalum grains were solved numerically using a tetrahedrally meshed volume. The resulting output included a scalar vonMises stress for each of the more than 94,000 tetrahedra within the finite element discretization. In this paper, we define an intricate statistical model for the spatial field of vonMises stress which uses the given grain geometry in a fundamental way. Our model relates the three-dimensional field to integrals of latent stochastic processes defined on the vertices of the one- and two-dimensional grain boundaries. An intuitive neighborhood structure of the said boundary nodes suggested the use of a latent Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF). However, despite the potential for computational gains afforded by GMRFs, the integral nature of our model and the sheer number of data points pose substantial challenges for a full Bayesian analysis. To overcome these problems and encourage efficient exploration of the posterior distribution, a number of techniques are now combined: parallel computing, sparse matrix methods, and a modification of a block update strategy within the sampling routine. In addition, we use an auxiliary variables approach to accommodate the presence of outliers in the data.     

The One-Box Challenge: Providing a Federated Search That Benefits the Research Process

The one-box federated search of databases brings as many challenges as promises to database searching, especially in terms of adapting these systems to user needs and the effects this new mode of searching will have on users' research behaviors. This issue of “The Balance Point” presents several librarians with strong interests in reference and instruction, who tell the story of adapting a federated search system for their libraries and reflect upon how federated searching can change the way students do research and on the implications federated searching has on information literacy skills and the quality of results found.     

Prior Placements of Youth Admitted to Therapeutic Foster Care and Residential Treatment Centers: The Odyssey Project Population

Two samples of youth in the child welfare system were compared—youth entering residential treatment centers (RTCs) and youth entering therapeutic foster care (TFC). Three questions were addressed: (1) Where were youth living prior to the current placement? (2) Had youth been treated in other systems of care? (3) How many prior placements did youth have? Time 1 data of the national “Odyssey Project” developed by the Child Welfare League of America were used. The^.measure utilized was the child and family characteristics form (CFC). Results revealed that youth admitted to RTCs were more likely to be entering from other systems of care and stepping down to the RTC while youth entering TFCs were more likely to be entering from within the child welfare system and stepping up to a higher level of care. The results have implications for improving clinical practice and for the development of a cross-system perspective on serving troubled youth.