As of June 2013, all California public school districts are required to incorporate stakeholder input into their operational goals and expenditures to increase stakeholder trust. Trust is a belief by one party in a transaction that the other party in the transaction will act in a way that is fair and in the interest of both parties. The problem is that no guidance or direction relative to the methods or extent to which stakeholder input should be gathered and incorporated was provided within the new regulations. Lawmakers and stakeholders had no insight into the effectiveness or level of school district compliance relative to the new regulations. The research questions of this qualitative, holistic explanatory case study examined how financial managers in the California public school system are engaging stakeholders and gathering and integrating stakeholder priorities into financial planning and budgets in light of limited guidance. The conceptual framework for this study was that stakeholder trust is required for operational efficiency and is increased through transparency and stakeholder engagement. In this study, data was triangulated through 17 semistructured interviews and multiple sources of historical documents. Through data coding it was found that all school districts in the study were using similar engagement methods to gather input and all districts were engaging all required stakeholder groups. It was also found that these engagement processes increased transparency with the districts' stakeholders. This study contributes to positive social change by providing additional insight into how California public school districts are complying with law established to increase transparency and trust relative to the use of public funds where limited guidance for implementations is provided.

The construct of educational accountability formally originated in 2001 as a means to improve education standards by holding teachers accountable for student academic progress; however, the definition of educational accountability for parents continues to be illusive. The purpose of this generic, qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of educational accountability among single, African American mothers of high school-aged children. The research question asked about how the beliefs of educational accountability among single African American mothers related to any involvement in their children's education. Azjen's theory of planned behavior, which outlines the relation of intention to action, was the framework used to analyze the attitudes and perceived behavior control of the participants regarding parental involvement. Data collected from one-on-one interviews with 5 single African American mothers were transcribed and analyzed using manual open coding and thematic analysis. The results of the study indicated that the mothers' intentions to be more involved in their children's education played a significant role in the outcome of their children's academic success, whether or not they were actively present in the school. Parental involvement may be explained by the overall socialization of children toward these intentions. It is recommended that educational institutions explore alternate options of parental involvement tailored to meet the needs of parents to be involved. This study contributes to social change by informing educators and African American families to collaborate to instill positive involvement in children's' educational planning.

The ability to read is highly valued in American society and important for social and economic advancement. One of the best strategies to prevent reading difficulties is to build basic literacy skills, thereby ensuring that all children are readers early in their educational careers. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between third-grade students' oral reading rate and scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The present study examined the relationship between the independent variables of Curriculum-Based Measurement Reading (R-CBM), ethnicity and socioeconomic status and the dependent variable of performance on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in 215 third-grade students. The data presented in this study were collected by the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) as part of a larger assessment battery across three school districts and nine elementary schools in Florida. Student demographic variables as well as performance on three different types of oral reading probes (generic, content, and FCAT passages) were investigated in relation to each student's performance on the reading portion of the FCAT. Results of the current study were similar to investigations in other states; the correlations among the R-CBM probes and between all R-CBM probes and FCAT scores were high and statistically significant. These results indicate that student performance on any or all R-CBM probe types can be used to predict FCAT score. Ethnicity and SES were not significant predictors of FCAT score above R-CBM score. Implications for educators and specifically school psychologists are discussed including opportunities for school psychologists to train educational personnel in the use of R-CBM. As evidenced by the current study, R-CBM may help identify students who are at-risk for reading failure and FCAT failure so that intensive interventions can be implemented early and student progress frequently monitored.

[pt] Essa tese e composta por três artigos. Os dois primeiros estudam os efeitos da abundância de recursos naturais através da análise do recente boom de petróleo no Brasil e a distribuição de royalties para os municípios. No primeiro capítulo, estuda-se os efeitos do boom de petróleo sobre a economia local. Mostra-se que os efeitos da produção de petróleo são pequenos, limitando-se ao impacto sobre o setor público. O maior impacto encontrado é sobre o número de funcionários públicos municipais, que aumenta consideravelmente entre 1997 e 2006. São encontrados efeitos modestos sobre a oferta de educação e saúde. O segundo capítulo analisa os efeitos do royalties de petróleo sobre a política local. Os royalties aumentam a probabilidade de reeleição dos prefeitos na primeira eleição que sucede o boom de receitas, mas essa vantagem não persiste nas eleições seguintes. Os resultados são consistentes com um processo de aprendizado por parte dos eleitores, que somente reconduzem os prefeitos ao poder quando têm conhecimento limitado sobre o choque positivo de receitas e interpretam o aumento de funcionários públicos como um sinal de habilidade do prefeito. Contudo, os resultados indicam que a abundância de recursos não acabou com a responsabilização dos prefeitos e que um sistema democrático é crucial para restringir o uso irresponsável desses recursos. O terceiro capítulo investiga um outro tema: a relação entre violência local e desempenho escolar. Explora-se a variação no espaço e no tempo do conflito de drogas no Rio de Janeiro para entender o impacto desses conflitos sobre as escolas municipais. Encontra-se que as áreas que sofreram mais variação de conflitos armados ao longo do tempo têm um desempenho inferior em testes padronizados de matemática. A exposição aos conflitos também é associada a aumento na reprovação e do abandono de alunos do quinto ano do ensino fundamental. Discute-se ainda os canais que podem explicar a piora do desempenho e identifica-se que violência está associada a maior ausência de professores nas escolas. / [en] This thesis is comprised of three articles. The first two chapters study the effects of natural resource abundance on economic development by analyzing Brazil s offshore oil boom and the distribution of royalties to municipalities. In the first chapter, we examine the impact of this oil boom on local economies. We show that oil production has little economic impact on the municipalities, other than in the public sector. By far, the most important effect is on the number of public employees, which increased a great deal from 1997 to 2006. Few improvements were found on health and educational services. The second chapter analyzes oil effects on local politics. We show evidence that oil does not make leaders unaccountable and that a democratic system is crucial to avoid the negative effects of resource abundance. Our results indicate that, although oil windfall creates a large incumbency advantage in the short run, voters reward incumbents by reappointing them to office as long as they are not completely informed of the size of the extraordinary revenue and see increases in public employment as an indication of mayor s ability. In the medium run, as information about the resources increases and a larger public sector does not translate into more public goods and services, citizens oust the incumbent and select new candidates. The third chapter investigates a different subject. We analyze the relationship between neighborhood violence and school achievement, by exploring time and geographical variation in Rio de Janeiro s drug battles. We find that schools close to areas that experience more variation in armed conflicts over time perform worse in standardized math exams, while no significant effect is found on language exams. Violent events are also associated with an increase in grade repetition and dropout for 5th graders. In terms of mobility across schools, we find no significant effects of violence on students transfers and new admissions during the school year. We also discuss the mechanisms that can explain these results and provide evidence that violence is associated with an increase in teacher absenteeism.

The lack of timely reporting of commercial fisheries landings interferes with effective management of fisheries in United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Federal law requires that landings be limited to prevent annual catch limits (ACLs) from being exceeded. Previous attempts to predict total landings have used historic data from prior fishing seasons to predict future landings rather than leveraging available in-season data to provide a more real-time prediction of landings. This study presents an in-season model that predicts total landings using partial reports from the current fishing year. This estimate of total landings, including error bounds around that estimate, can then be compared to the ACL established for the species to estimate potential deviations from the allowable landings and adjust effort accordingly. The performance of the model was tested in a retrospective analysis on historical commercial landings data. Differences between predicted and observed fishing year landings by defined cut-off dates were used to identify reasonable deadlines for fishery managers to begin making reliable predictions on total annual landings. On average, predictions can be made with less than 9% error with at least four months of partial data, and with less than 5% error with at least seven months of partial data. This model's in-season predictions should be useful to managers to prevent ACL overages, and to guide fishers in their application of effort within and among components of the fishery, for example, to shift effort from one fishery management unit to another in response to excessive landings.

This thesis is about the capacity of local government agencies in Makassar (Indonesia) to provide services to the public. Besides aiming to understand the institutional capacity of local government agencies, the research also examines the role internal and external factors play in determining the service delivery capacity of public organisations. Internal factors refer to the organisational structure, managerial practices and the management of human resources in public organisations. External factors refer to the degree of bureaucratic and political accountability as well as the level of competition experienced by government agencies. ¶ This research will enrich the existing development literature by strengthening our understanding of the ways in which internal and external factors strengthen or weaken the capacity of public sector institutions. ¶ Institutional capacity is measured by the quality of services provided by the local government agencies as assessed by their clients through both questionnaires and interviews, whereas the data regarding the role internal and external factors play in determining the institutional capacity of local government agencies were collected by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with the management and staff in a number of agencies, with high-level bureaucrats, with non-government organisations and business associations, and members of the Makassar parliament. ¶ This study concludes that the institutional capacity of local government agencies in the case studies varies, although overall institutional capacity is relatively low or unsatisfactory. Of the four agencies in the case studies, only one agency was able to deliver quality services higher than the level expected by its clients. ¶ In general, this research reveals that the degree of accountability of the local government agencies in the case studies is relatively weak. The study infers that the degree of accountability does not have a significant impact on the agencies' performance. ¶ It was found that the competitive or monopolistic environment in which the local government agencies operate does affect the capacity of the agencies to serve their clients. This capacity is also affected by a number of aspects within the organisation and human resource dimensions of the agencies. ¶ This study shows that, in the case of Indonesia, attempts to improve the capacity of government agencies to deliver quality public services by improving the capacity of parliament to politically oversee the executive, as recommended by a number of international agencies and commentators, may not be the best and most effective alternative. Rather than focusing the resources to improve the degree of political accountability, the study suggests that a more effective strategy to develop the capacity of government agencies is to enhance the organisational structure, managerial practices and the management of human resources in the public organizations, and to introduce competition into the delivery of public services.

This thesis aims to contribute to the improvement and advancement of university learning, teaching, and staff development; to integrate educational theory and the practice of university teaching; and to contribute to the establishment of a new, emerging paradigm in higher education. The strategy towards achieving these aims comprises (1) an alternative research methodology in the interpretive, non-positivist paradigm; (2) an integrated framework drawing on a variety of previously unrelated theories to form an alternative model of university education; and (3) reference to the dialectical relationship between educational theory and teaching practice and their integration through action research in higher education. The thesis is not so much a critique of the traditional paradigm and of existing functionalist-structuralist approaches to higher education, but more a development and clarification of an alternative, dialectical, human action approach to higher education. The original contribution of this thesis to the theory and practice of higher education lies in the development (1) of an alternative model of university education based on an integration of previously unrelated domains of theory; (2) of a theoretical model of professional development as action research (the CRASP Model: Critical attitude, Research into teaching, Accountability, Self-evaluation, Professionalism); and (3) of action research projects in higher education. Action research is research by the university teachers themselves into their teaching practice, i.e. into problems of the curriculum and student learning. The case studies included in and appended to this thesis show that in one educational setting at least it was possible to improve and advance university learning and teaching through action research. The evidence for this advancement is provided in a number of previously published case studies compiled in the Appendix.

Environmental management accounting (EMA) is attracting increased recognition as a management tool that assists in improving financial and environmental performance through enhanced environmental accountability. Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and study, but universities have typically failed to be the focus of the attention. This research studied the experiences of key managers from five universities to explore potential factors influencing the decision to adopt, or not to adopt, EMA within the higher education sector. For the purpose of this study, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis, and use of monetary (or financial) and physical (or non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance. The two objectives of this study were to understand current accounting practices for managing major environmental costs, and to identify factors influencing EMA adoption within universities. For the purpose of this study, the major environmental costs referred to are limited to the costs pertaining to the consumption of electricity, water and paper, and the generation of wastes. A case study methodology was followed using semi-structured interviews of key personnel with four different management functions (i.e. environmental management, management accounting, senior management, and heads of academic schools) within each university, and performing content analysis on the transcribed interview data. Specifically for achieving the second research objective, a theoretical framework that considers four theories was embraced to guide the data collection and focus the study. The four theories are contingency theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory. The findings of the first research objective revealed that there was a general lack of EMA utilisation within the case universities. This was in part due to a perceived lack of appreciation by key personnel of the extent of environmental costs being incurred, but arguably mainly because of the absence of relevant environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. Although environmental sustainability was promoted as important from an environmental management perspective, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still absent. In relation to the second research objective, it was found that five key barriers contributed to this lack of EMA utilisation within the five case universities, and they were attitudinal, financial, informational, institutional, and management barriers. Among the factors that provide further explanations about how each barrier influences EMA adoption, resistance to change, resource constraints, (a lack of) legitimacy considerations, and a lack of environmental responsibility & accountability were found to be strong factors, as they were supported in all of the five cases. Apart from the theoretical extension to this area of research, the results and findings of this study supported the uses and applications of EMA by the higher education sector. Much more can, and should, be done by universities in relation to how they account for the environment. This can provide benefits not only for the sector itself, but also for the environment in which we live.

The evolvement of digital reporting has changed the way financial information is prepared and disseminated (Debreceny and Gray, 200 1 ). Previous research has shown that digital reporting has increased, particularly in the last five years, and this usage is characterised by greater volumes of business and financial information over that traditionally provided in print-based mode (Smith, 2003). The new opportunities and benefits offered by digital reporting are matched by challenges and implications not only for the preparers and auditors but also for users. It is expected that in the near future, financial reporting will move entirely from the primarily print-based mode to digital-based mode as the primary information dissemination channel (Oyelere et aI., 2003; Fisher et aI., 2004). Research in the area of digital reporting has been conducted in the past decade. Within this research, a considerable number of issues have been raised. These issues relate to various parties, such as policy makers, preparers, auditors, system designers and users. While several research questions and hypotheses concerning these parties have been posed and investigated, most of the research questions and hypotheses have been formed from a preparers' perspective, leaving the examination of issues from a users' perspective largely unexplored. This study focuses on users. It examines the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance in relation to decision quality, perceptions and cognitive information processing in the digital reporting environment. It aims to extend the digital reporting literature. This study extends the existing body of knowledge on digital reporting environment in several ways. First, this study examines the effect of presentation formats on the quality of users' decision making. This study follows Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993) who described 'decision quality' in the context of two cost-benefit dimensions in relation to decision makers' cognitive processes, namely decision accuracy and cognitive effort. Decision accuracy reflects the ability of a strategy to produce an accurate outcome while cognitive effort reflects the total cognitive expenditure incurred in completing a task. Second, this study examines users' perceptions of three digital presentation formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. This study compares subjects' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of the three presentation formats with their actual outcome. It also includes examining whether perceptions are an important factor in influencing preferred presentation format. Finally, this study examines whether digital presentation formats address the concern over functional fixation in the accounting context of 'recognition versus disclosure' in the reporting of financial information. This study used public accounting practitioners in New Zealand as participants. Sixty two subjects participated in the experiment, which involves an experiment exercise and a post experiment questionnaire. The results indicate that presentation formats impact on decision accuracy. This finding is consistent with previous studies conducted using non-digital presentation formats such as tabular and graphical in the psychology and information systems literature (Stock and Watson, 1984; Dickson et aI., 1986; Iselin, 1988; DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Mackay and Villareal, 1987; Hard and Vanacek, 1991; Stone and Schkade, 1991; Anderson and Kaplan, 1992; Bricker and Nehmer, 1995; Ramarapu et aI., 1997; Frownfelter-Lohrke, 1998; Almer et aI., 2003). The results, however, indicate that presentation formats do not impact decision makers' cognitive effort. These findings suggest that preparers, standardsetters and regulatory bodies should recognise that presentation format impacts on users' decision making processes and select appropriate formats that lead to improvement in decision making. Additionally, the results indicate that users' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the reporting technologies are similar across the three presentation formats. The results also show that users' perceptions do not necessary correspond to actual performance. Users' perceptions are found to influence their preferred presentation format. The findings of this study provide useful insights on users' perceptions, performances and preferences of the digital presentation formats. Such results provide a holistic and comprehensive view of the importance of perceptions and the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance. This is particularly relevant since if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, then there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of presentation. Finally, the results show that of the four recognised stages of information processing (i.e. acquisition, evaluation, weighting and judging information), functional fixation is found to only exist at the judgment stage. However, the effect of presentation format is only significant at information evaluation stage. The results indicate that the interaction between presentation formats and placement of information does not affect decision makers' information processing. This suggests that presentation formats do not solve the concern about recognition versus disclosure (functional fixation) in information processing stages. These fmdings are not consistent with Hodge et al. (2004) but are consistent with Luft and Shields (2001) who suggest functional fixation could not be alleviated because the accounting itself would affect the allocation of people's attention. This study extends the literature on presentation format by examining the quality of decision making arising from the use of different presentation formats in a digital reporting environment. It provides evidence that users' perceptions of ease of use of a presentation format do not necessarily correspond to their actual performance (cognitive effort) once a particular task has been performed. This study also provides evidence that the acceptance of a technology is highly dependent on the perceptions of that technology. Therefore, limited knowledge and appreciation of the capabilities of a technology may have the undesired effect of deterring use of the technology although it may improve performance.

The evolvement of digital reporting has changed the way financial information is prepared and disseminated (Debreceny and Gray, 200 1 ). Previous research has shown that digital reporting has increased, particularly in the last five years, and this usage is characterised by greater volumes of business and financial information over that traditionally provided in print-based mode (Smith, 2003). The new opportunities and benefits offered by digital reporting are matched by challenges and implications not only for the preparers and auditors but also for users. It is expected that in the near future, financial reporting will move entirely from the primarily print-based mode to digital-based mode as the primary information dissemination channel (Oyelere et aI., 2003; Fisher et aI., 2004). Research in the area of digital reporting has been conducted in the past decade. Within this research, a considerable number of issues have been raised. These issues relate to various parties, such as policy makers, preparers, auditors, system designers and users. While several research questions and hypotheses concerning these parties have been posed and investigated, most of the research questions and hypotheses have been formed from a preparers' perspective, leaving the examination of issues from a users' perspective largely unexplored. This study focuses on users. It examines the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance in relation to decision quality, perceptions and cognitive information processing in the digital reporting environment. It aims to extend the digital reporting literature. This study extends the existing body of knowledge on digital reporting environment in several ways. First, this study examines the effect of presentation formats on the quality of users' decision making. This study follows Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993) who described 'decision quality' in the context of two cost-benefit dimensions in relation to decision makers' cognitive processes, namely decision accuracy and cognitive effort. Decision accuracy reflects the ability of a strategy to produce an accurate outcome while cognitive effort reflects the total cognitive expenditure incurred in completing a task. Second, this study examines users' perceptions of three digital presentation formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. This study compares subjects' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of the three presentation formats with their actual outcome. It also includes examining whether perceptions are an important factor in influencing preferred presentation format. Finally, this study examines whether digital presentation formats address the concern over functional fixation in the accounting context of 'recognition versus disclosure' in the reporting of financial information. This study used public accounting practitioners in New Zealand as participants. Sixty two subjects participated in the experiment, which involves an experiment exercise and a post experiment questionnaire. The results indicate that presentation formats impact on decision accuracy. This finding is consistent with previous studies conducted using non-digital presentation formats such as tabular and graphical in the psychology and information systems literature (Stock and Watson, 1984; Dickson et aI., 1986; Iselin, 1988; DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Mackay and Villareal, 1987; Hard and Vanacek, 1991; Stone and Schkade, 1991; Anderson and Kaplan, 1992; Bricker and Nehmer, 1995; Ramarapu et aI., 1997; Frownfelter-Lohrke, 1998; Almer et aI., 2003). The results, however, indicate that presentation formats do not impact decision makers' cognitive effort. These findings suggest that preparers, standardsetters and regulatory bodies should recognise that presentation format impacts on users' decision making processes and select appropriate formats that lead to improvement in decision making. Additionally, the results indicate that users' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the reporting technologies are similar across the three presentation formats. The results also show that users' perceptions do not necessary correspond to actual performance. Users' perceptions are found to influence their preferred presentation format. The findings of this study provide useful insights on users' perceptions, performances and preferences of the digital presentation formats. Such results provide a holistic and comprehensive view of the importance of perceptions and the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance. This is particularly relevant since if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, then there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of presentation. Finally, the results show that of the four recognised stages of information processing (i.e. acquisition, evaluation, weighting and judging information), functional fixation is found to only exist at the judgment stage. However, the effect of presentation format is only significant at information evaluation stage. The results indicate that the interaction between presentation formats and placement of information does not affect decision makers' information processing. This suggests that presentation formats do not solve the concern about recognition versus disclosure (functional fixation) in information processing stages. These fmdings are not consistent with Hodge et al. (2004) but are consistent with Luft and Shields (2001) who suggest functional fixation could not be alleviated because the accounting itself would affect the allocation of people's attention. This study extends the literature on presentation format by examining the quality of decision making arising from the use of different presentation formats in a digital reporting environment. It provides evidence that users' perceptions of ease of use of a presentation format do not necessarily correspond to their actual performance (cognitive effort) once a particular task has been performed. This study also provides evidence that the acceptance of a technology is highly dependent on the perceptions of that technology. Therefore, limited knowledge and appreciation of the capabilities of a technology may have the undesired effect of deterring use of the technology although it may improve performance.