| JPAM Preview ▪ August 2012 |
| JPAM Preview is a newsletter that calls attention to forthcoming articles in JPAM. JPAM Preview provides brief summaries of content now available digitally in Early View, Wiley's online publication system. |
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| Feature Article Brown Fades: The End of Court-Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools Sean F. Reardon, Elena Tej Grewal, Demetra Kalogrides, and Erica Greenberg In this paper, we investigate whether the school desegregation produced by court-ordered desegregation plans persists when school districts are released from court oversight. Over 200 medium-sized and large districts were released from desegregation court orders from 1991 to 2009. We find that racial school segregation in these districts increased gradually following release from court order, relative to the trends in segregation in districts remaining under court order. These increases are more pronounced in the South, in elementary grades, and in districts where prerelease school segregation levels were low. These results suggest that court-ordered desegregation plans are effective in reducing racial school segregation, but that their effects fade over time in the absence of continued court oversight. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Feature Article Who Benefits from Kipp? Joshua D. Angrist, Susan M. Dynarski, Thomas J. Kane, Parag A. Pathak, and Christopher R. Walters The nation's largest charter management organization is the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP schools are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education, a highly standardized and widely replicated charter model that features a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms, and emphasizes traditional reading and math skills. No Excuses charter schools are sometimes said to target relatively motivated high achievers at the expense of students who are more difficult to teach, including limited English proficiency (LEP) and special education (SPED) students, as well as students with low baseline achievement levels. We use applicant lotteries to evaluate the impact of KIPPAcademy Lynn, a KIPP school in Lynn, Massachusetts that typifies the KIPP approach. Our analysis focuses on special needs students that may be underserved. The results show average achievement gains of 0.36 standard deviations in math and 0.12 standard deviations in reading for each year spent at KIPPLynn, with the largest gains coming from the LEP, SPED, and low-achievement groups. Average reading gains are driven almost entirely by SPED and LEP students, whose reading scores rise by roughly 0.35 standard deviations for each year spent at KIPPLynn. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Feature Article Family Business or Social Problem? The Cost of Unreported Domestic Violence Scott E. Carrell and Mark Hoekstra Social interest in problems such as domestic violence is typically motivated by concerns regarding equity, rather than efficiency. However, we document that taking steps to reduce domestic violence by reporting it yields substantial benefits to external parties. Specifically, we find that although children exposed to as-yet-unreported domestic violence reduce the achievement of their classroom peers, these costs disappear completely once the parent reports the violence to the court. This suggests that the public has an interest in helping families to overcome their problems in general and to report domestic violence in particular. It also suggests that social and judicial interventions may help combat negative peer effects in schools. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Feature Article The Effect of Media on Charitable Giving and Volunteering: Evidence from the "Give Five" Campaign Barış K. Yörük Fundraising campaigns advertised via mass media are common. To what extent such campaigns affect charitable behavior is mostly unknown, however. Using giving and volunteering surveys conducted biennially from 1988 to 1996, I investigate the effect of a national fundraising campaign, "Give Five," on charitable giving and volunteering patterns. The widely advertised Give Five campaign was aimed to encourage people to give 5 percent of their income and volunteer 5 hours a week. After controlling for selection into being informed about the Give Five, I find that people who were informed about the campaign increased their weekly volunteering activity on average by almost half an hour, but their giving behavior was not significantly affected. I discuss the policy implications associated with this result and argue that although the Give Five campaign did not achieve its goal, its impact on volunteering was considerable. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Policy Retrospectives Natalist Policies in the United States Leonard M. Lopoo and Kerri M. Raissian This retrospective reviews the policies that affect the fertility of American women, both policies designed to alter fertility intentionally as well as those that change childbearing unintentionally. Becker's seminal work on the economics of fertility serves as the theoretical foundation for this literature. After describing Becker's economic model, we review the empirical literature on fertility responses to social welfare policies, tax policies, the mandated health care coverage of infertility treatments, abortion policies, and government-sponsored family planning services. We also address several Supreme Court cases that have played an important role in the interpretation of these policies. Where relevant, this retrospective describes the distributional effects of these natalist policies. We also discuss the limitations of this literature and identify important gaps. Unlike most developed countries that have created strategies to increase fertility to support their ageing population, the United States spends considerably less time and thought on this issue. Our reading of the literature suggests that we have many public policies that have affected and continue to influence the fertility choices made by families in the United States and that this is a topical area that deserves more attention in policy debates. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Point/Counterpoint The Economics of U.S. Immigration Policy Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny The economic gains from immigration are much like those from international trade: The economy benefits overall from immigration, but there are distributional effects that create both winners and losers. Immigration is different from trade, however, in that the physical presence of the people who provide the goods and services that drive the economic gains also raises other issues, such as whether immigrants are a fiscal drain. It may be no surprise then that Americans' views on immigration are mixed. Polls show that the majority of Americans think immigration is "a good thing" for the United States (Gallup, 2011). Nonetheless, most Americans want immigration to decrease or remain at its present level; less than 20 percent of Americans support an increase in immigration (Gallup, 2011). We discuss below potential reasons why Americans are concerned about immigration. Many of the concerns stem from the belief that immigration has adverse labor market and fiscal impacts, although the economic evidence on these issues is mixed. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Point/Counterpoint The Elusive Goal: The Quest for a Credible Immigration Policy Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. For more than 30 years the United States has unsuccessfully struggled to reform its often maligned and massively abused immigration policies. Matters went awry following the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. There were unexpected consequences. Intended to remove the overtly discriminatory features of the "national origins" admissions system in place since the 1920s, the legislation inadvertently ushered in the return of the phenomenon of mass immigration. Neither political party nor any of the advocates for reform in 1965 in either the Johnson administration or Congress sought such an objective. Indeed, they specifically assured the public that such an outcome was not being sought and promised that it would not happen (Briggs, 2003, pp. 124–130). But it did. Like the proverbial genie in the jug, the change creating forces of mass immigration were once again released on an unsuspecting and unprepared populace. Until rebottled by reform legislation, the process will continue. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Point/Counterpoint Credible Immigration Policy Reform: A Response to Briggs Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny We agree with Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., that U.S. immigration policy has had unexpected consequences. The 1965 immigration reforms led to unanticipated chain migration from developing countries whereas the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act failed to slow unauthorized immigration. The result is a large foreign-born population with relatively low levels of human capital. We disagree with him, however, on the labor market effects of this migration stream and on his proposed policy reforms. Briggs suggests that immigration policy has the power to solve society's most vexing problems. By simply reducing legal immigration by 30 percent and eliminating illegal immigration, the United States can reverse the long-term decline in blue-collar wages, reduce unemployment, and lower poverty and income inequality. We think immigration policy has important economic effects and needs to be overhauled, but immigration policy reform is not a silver bullet. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Point/Counterpoint Reply to Orrenius and Zavodny Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. On the fundamental conclusions, the positions argued by Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny and my own are in essential agreement. The immigration policy of the United States is in dire need of changes. The public concern is, in their words, "driven by the increase in immigration in recent years, particularly of unauthorized immigration." Our mutual worries pertain to the disproportionately adverse impacts of the immigrant inflow on the nation's low-skilled work force and the high fiscal burden borne by local communities and states with growing immigrant populations. The differences between the two papers center on the approaches taken to reach these conclusions and the policy reforms that flow from the respective analyses. Forthcoming in JPAM 31(4). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Feature Article Do Child Development Accounts Promote Account Holding, Saving, and Asset Accumulation for Children's Future? Evidence from a Statewide Randomized Experiment Yunju Nam, Youngmi Kim, Robert Zager, Margaret Clancy, and Michael Sherraden This study examines the impacts of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) on account holding, saving, and asset accumulation for children, using data from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment (SEED OK). SEED OK, a policy test of universal and progressive CDAs, provides a 529 college savings plan account to every infant in the treatment group with automatic account opening and an initial deposit. SEED OK also encourages treatment participants to open their own 529 accounts with an account opening incentive and a savings match. Using a sample of infants randomly selected from birth records (N = 2,670) and randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, this study runs probit and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. Analyses show significant differences between treatment and control groups in all outcome measures in the targeted accounts. Nearly 100 percent of the treatment group accepted the automatically opened state-owned account. Compared to 1 percent of the control group, 16 percent of the treatment group hold a participant-owned account. On average, the treatment group has saved significantly larger amounts in participant-owned accounts, although a difference in savings amount is modest between the two groups ($47 vs. $13). A difference in total 529 assets of $1,040 is estimated between the treatment and control groups. These early findings from SEED OK suggest that CDAs have positive effects on savings and asset accumulation for children's future development. Further research is required to test long-term cost effectiveness of CDAs. Forthcoming in JPAM 32(1). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Feature Article The Use and Efficacy of Capacity-Building Assistance for Low-Performing Districts: The Case of California's District Assistance and Intervention Teams Katharine O. Strunk, Andrew McEachin, and Theresa Westover The theory of action upon which high-stakes accountability policies are based calls for systemic reforms in educational systems that will emerge by pairing incentives for improvement with extensive and targeted technical assistance (TA) to build the capacity of low-performing schools and districts. To this end, a little discussed and often overlooked aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated that, in addition to sanctions, states were required to provide TA to build the capacity of struggling schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs, or districts) to help them improve student achievement. Although every state in the country provides some form of TA to its lowest performing districts, we know little about the content of these programs or about their efficacy in improving student performance. In this paper, we use both quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the actions taken by TA providers in one state-California-and examine whether the TA and support tied to California's NCLB sanctions succeeds in improving student achievement. Like many other states, California requires that districts labeled as persistently failing under NCLB (in Program Improvement year 3, PI3) work with external experts to help them build the capacity to make reforms that will improve student achievement. California's lowest performing PI3 districts are given substantial amounts of funding and are required to contract with state-approved District Assistance and Intervention Teams (DAITs), whereas the remaining PI3 districts receive less funding and are asked to access less intensive TA from non-DAIT providers. We use a five-year panel difference-in-difference design to estimate the impacts of DAITs on student performance on the math and English language arts (ELA) standardized tests relative to non-DAIT TA during the two years of the program intervention. We find that students in districts with DAITs perform significantly better on math California Standards Tests (CSTs) averaged over both treatment years and in each of the first and second years. We do not find evidence that students in districts with DAITs perform higher on ELA CSTs over the combined two years of treatment, although we find suggestive evidence that ELA performance increases in the second year of treatment relative to students in districts with non-DAIT TA. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions that explore the association between specific activities fostered by DAITs and changes in districts' gains in achievement over the two years of treatment show that DAIT districts that report increasing their focus on using data to guide instruction, shifting district culture to generate and maintain high expectations of students and staff, and increasing within-district accountability for student performance, have higher math achievement gains over the course of the DAIT treatment. In addition, DAIT districts that increase their focus on ELA instruction and shift district culture to one of high expectations have higher ELA achievement gains than do DAIT districts that do not have a similar focus. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Forthcoming in JPAM 32(1). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Methods for Policy Analysis External Validity in Policy Evaluations that Choose Sites Purposively Robert B. Olsen, Larry L. Orr, Stephen H. Bell, and Elizabeth A. Stuart Evaluations of the impact of social programs are often carried out in multiple sites, such as school districts, housing authorities, local TANF offices, or One-Stop Career Centers. Most evaluations select sites purposively following a process that is nonrandom. Unfortunately, purposive site selection can produce a sample of sites that is not representative of the population of interest for the program. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model of purposive site selection. We begin with the proposition that a purposive sample of sites can usefully be conceptualized as a random sample of sites from some well-defined population, for which the sampling probabilities are unknown and vary across sites. This proposition allows us to derive a formal, yet intuitive, mathematical expression for the bias in the pooled impact estimate when sites are selected purposively. This formula helps us to better understand the consequences of selecting sites purposively, and the factors that contribute to the bias. Additional research is needed to obtain evidence on how large the bias tends to be in actual studies that select sites purposively, and to develop methods to increase the external validity of these studies. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Forthcoming in JPAM 32(1). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Professional Practice Open Government Initiatives: Challenges of Citizen Participation Angela M. Evans and Adriana Campos This paper reviews the current state of open government activities at the national level and suggests approaches to advance public discourse and participation. Because the goal of open government is to critically inform citizens about issues and substantively engage with policymakers, public managers must advance transparency efforts beyond those focused upon data information technologies. Forthcoming in JPAM 32(1). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Professional Practice Does Measuring Performance Lead to Better Performance? Mary Bryna Sanger Performance measurement-documenting whether an organization is reaching its goals-has become a growth industry in the United States. But it is not clear what the current vogue for performance measurement has actually produced, especially for municipal governments. In fact, our research suggests that performance measurement rarely leads to improved government performance or more efficient and accountable municipal management. Forthcoming in JPAM 32(1). Link to JPAM Early View. If you want to cite this article before it is in print, please use the DOI number listed with each article. |
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| Journal of Policy Analysis and Management is published by Wiley Periodicals on behalf of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Editor-in-Chief: Maureen Pirog ▪ Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs (and) University of Washington, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs Managing Editors: Robert Kaestner ▪ University of Illinois at Chicago Christopher (Kitt) Carpenter ▪ University of California, Irvine | |
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