Black and Hispanic students continue to be excluded from the learning environmentmore than three times the rate of their White classmates. The effects of this include low student achievement, reduced chances of graduating from high school, and an increased chance of entering the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative justice was introduced to schools and school systems as an alternative to suspension and other exclusionary practices. The purpose of this study was to examine how school personnel implement and sustain restorative justice practices to reduce the number of Black and Hispanic students disproportionately affected by zero tolerance policies or exclusionary practices. The overarching research question of this study was the following: How do school personnel describe and understand the implementation of restorative justice practices? To address my research question, I conducted a single case study of a school in a large Atlantic coast school system. Data collection methods included: semi-structured interviews of school personnel and leadership, observations, and document review. Four major findings emerged from this study: (1) Cultural understanding, understanding implicit bias, and student-school personnel relationships create the conditions to reduce schoolwide disciplinary infractions and improve climate and culture; (2) School leadership intentional about supporting the mindset shift of staff from punitive to restorative contributes to the development of a positive learning community and supports the implementation of restorative justice and its associated practices; (3) Sustainability of restorative justice depends on the following levers: consistency of restorative justice practices, staff support, and onboarding of new staff members; (4) Professional development, specifically professional development at the school and district level, served as the vehicle to build the capacity of staff as it relates to restorative justice theory, mindset and cultural proficiency (cultural understandings).

I use a canonical model similar to that of Golosov, Tsyvinski, and Werning (2006) to highlight salient properties of the standard tax system used to decentralize constrained efficient allocations. I first show that while labor and wealth taxes are mainly used for efficiency purposes, risk-sharing is achieved through lump-sum transfers. I then show through various examples that ignoring parts of the optimal tax system---a recurring theme in the literature---can lead to sizable welfare losses. In order to evaluate the causal effect of student loans on labor market outcomes, we exploit the eligibility for the need-based Stafford loan program (subsidized Stafford loans) to implement a regression kink design. Using a nationally representative sample of students graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1993, we establish that student loan debt leads to lower earnings after graduation. Estimates show that an additional hundred dollars of Stafford loan reduces 1994 annual income by about 0.1%. Extrapolating this result, earnings for an individual with the mean level of borrowing are 5% lower than those of an individual with no debt. The impact of an additional hundred dollars of student debt decreases income by 0.4% in 1997, and the impact of debt on earnings vanishes by 2003. Economic theory shows that there exists a simple mechanism consistent with the empirical finding, whereby more debt leads individuals to quickly find employment rather than wait for an ideal job. Crucial for this result is that student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Indeed, when debt is dischargeable, higher debt can cause individuals to search for higher paying jobs that are harder to find. Absent government or otherwise imposed restrictions, competitive loan markets are incompatible with identifiable subsets of the population subsidizing others. We use that insight to identify and measure inefficiencies in government student loan programs using linked survey and administrative data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) longitudinal surveys. We use loan repayment histories to compute realized returns for borrowers. We then estimate considerable heterogeneity in expected returns based on ex ante observable characteristics, which suggests inefficiencies that private lenders might exploit by cream-skimming more profitable borrowers. We explore the potential for cream-skimming under different assumptions about the costs of capital for private lenders and study its implications for the pool of government student loan borrowers and expected returns to the government. Finally, we analyze the extent to which student loan limits can be modified based on borrower characteristics to equate expected returns and alleviate concerns about cream-skimming.

Over the last several years, there has been an increased awareness regarding consensual sexual relationships (CSRs) between professors and students. Specifically, there has been a growing movement for academic institutions to develop policies addressing, discouraging, and/or prohibiting these relationships due to the potential for sexual harassment cases. Even though the appropriateness of such relationships has been widely debated among the university community, a limited amount of empirical work has examined this issue with the majority focusing on attitudinal studies. The current exploratory study consists of a content analysis of 278 faculty and student responses to the question, “If there is a difference between consensual sexual relationships and sexual harassment, what is it?” Responses indicate that there are several overlapping themes for both faculty and students in how they view these differences, with a large number of responses specifically indicating themes such as “CSR is consensual” while “sexual harassment is one sided.” There are also some unique perspectives given by faculty regarding the complexities and acceptability of CSRs, who are generally more specific and nuanced in their answers. Considering the complexities of this issue, it is the recommendation of the current study that much more research fully exploring the attitudes of faculty and students is needed to develop a well-rounded and comprehensive policy.

This study utilizes an alignment-crosswalk of metro-Los Angeles public K-12 school districts’ teacher evaluation items and the California Teacher Performance Expectations to determine which local school district evaluation items do not align with pre-service preparation course work standards, and which pre-service preparation course work standards are not assessed by local school districts. Findings initially indicated that many districts utilize the California Standards for the Teaching Profession, a set of standards defined by the same California regulatory body which responsible for developing and authorizing the California Teacher Performance Expectations. Initial findings also included school district evaluations not aligned to the California Standards for the Teaching Profession which were also crosswalked with the Teacher Performance Expectations to determine their alignment and non-coverage areas. Content analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis were performed to determine what gaps exist between preservice teachers’ preparation standards and in-service early-career evaluation standards.

No description available.

Over the last several years, there has been an increased awareness regarding consensual sexual relationships (CSRs) between professors and students. Specifically, there has been a growing movement for academic institutions to develop policies addressing, discouraging, and/or prohibiting these relationships due to the potential for sexual harassment cases. Even though the appropriateness of such relationships has been widely debated among the university community, a limited amount of empirical work has examined this issue with the majority focusing on attitudinal studies. The current exploratory study consists of a content analysis of 278 faculty and student responses to the question, “If there is a difference between consensual sexual relationships and sexual harassment, what is it?” Responses indicate that there are several overlapping themes for both faculty and students in how they view these differences, with a large number of responses specifically indicating themes such as “CSR is consensual” while “sexual harassment is one sided.” There are also some unique perspectives given by faculty regarding the complexities and acceptability of CSRs, who are generally more specific and nuanced in their answers. Considering the complexities of this issue, it is the recommendation of the current study that much more research fully exploring the attitudes of faculty and students is needed to develop a well-rounded and comprehensive policy.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) call for a greater focus on informational reading and nonfiction writing during high school instruction. The ELA standards assume that teaching reading and writing will become a shared responsibility within a school and include standards for teachers of science and social studies as well as English. However, not all teachers may be prepared to incorporate informational reading and nonfiction writing into their curriculum and instruction. Using a basic qualitative research methodology, this study examined how educators in one Maryland school district—including English, science, and social studies teachers and school administrators—made sense of the CCSS-ELA and how these educators worked, or did not work, to incorporate more informational reading and nonfiction writing into their classrooms. Educators’ understanding of the CCSS-ELA was shaped, in part, by their district’s curriculum frameworks and a district-required literacy project. This study found (a) that while most of the educators interviewed supported the Common Core, teachers were generally overwhelmed with multiple competing or conflicting polices that made it difficult to focus on implementing the standards; (b) educators had mixed responses to the district-offered supports intended to help them implement the CCSS-ELA; (c) the departmentalization inherent in most high school structures limited collaboration around the standards among teachers of different subjects (d) improving student writing proved to be particularly difficult. The study suggests a need for increased policy alignment at the district and state levels to facilitate implementation of key aspects of the Common Core. Another implication is the continued need for differentiated professional development and other implementation supports based on the subject taught and level of teacher experience.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.