This dissertation examines the literature that attempts to measure the relationship between school quality and earnings. I begin by developing a simple economic model that predicts that, everything else being equal and with comparisons being made within a market, workers from higher quality schools will have higher earnings among those with the same level of schooling and they will have steeper schooling-earnings gradients. The remainder of this dissertation explores problems that exist in this literature for which no solutions have been presented. These problems include: 1) there doesn’t have to be a direct and positive relationship between school quality and earnings; 2) the data suggest that school quality measures are frequently mismatched to workers; 3) most school quality studies include college-trained labor while completely ignoring the quality of the college attended; 4) the omission of college quality from the estimation is especially problematic for studies that attempt to measure the school quality-earnings relationship through differences in schooling-earnings gradients for those educated in different systems; 5) state of birth wage rankings thought to capture a school quality effect are not invariant to the market (state of residence) in which they are evaluated; and 6) the evidence presented herein suggests that interstate migration is selective. These problems undermine the credibility of existing estimates of a school qualityearnings relationship.

This study set out to examine the relative influence of personal and school-based characteristics and parental involvement on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of public school performance. A national and representative sample of parents of school-aged children (N= 2008) were asked to award a grade (A, B, C, D or F) to their community school. There is a significant lack of empirical study of the factors influencing parents’ perceptions of school performance. The present study controlled for the socioeconomic status of parents and the community school being graded. Parental involvement in schools and assisting with homework are elements of parents’ relations with schools and were controlled for in the multivariate analysis. It was found that mothers and fathers are differentially influenced by personal and school-based characteristics; and, of import, there is a negative and significant association between participation in school-based activities and a father’s perception of school performance. The opposite association with participation in school-based activities was observed for mothers. Further, perceptions of “Failing” schools are influenced to a greater extent by the socioeconomic status of the parent and of the school. The results are interpreted by gendering the relations between parents and schools, and drawing from feminist standpoint theory. Particular focus is brought to the discordant association of parental involvement and the grades awarded to schools by mothers and fathers.

This dissertation investigates people’s responses when access to or the level of local public goods is proposed to or actually changes. By understanding how people respond to potential changes in school assignment, construction of the interstate highway system, and the widening of existing highways, researchers can gain better insight into how to accurately estimate people’s valuation of local public goods and policy makers can pursue effective policies to relieve traffic congestion and mitigate the impact of new highway construction. The first essay examines if information regarding potential school reassignment causes cross-sectional capitalization estimation techniques, most notably the border method, to undervalue people willingness to pay for school quality. Using hedonic regression techniques and home sale data from DeKalb County, Georgia, I find that residents’ expectations of future school quality are important factors in determining the magnitude of school quality capitalization estimates. The second essay explores how the construction of the interstate highway system impacted agricultural land loss in Georgia. Since agricultural land provides many positive externalities while its loss leads to several negative externalities, the results inform policy makers seeking to preserve agricultural land and study the urban form. Using a historical dataset covering 1945 to 2007, I find that each additional highway mile constructed led to the conversion of 468 acres of agricultural land. Finally, the third essay investigates commuter responses to the widening of existing highways in order to evaluate the effectiveness of road construction as a traffic congestion relief measure. The results indicate that the elasticity for the demand of driving with respect to the road supply is 0.522 and that it grows over time. Taken together, the result for the estimated elasticity imply that road construction may provide some congestion relief in the short run but eventually the expanded roads will be just as congested as before. The results of the three essays suggest that researchers and policy makers should take into the consideration how people will respond to potential changes to public goods as well as the short and long term impacts on investments in public goods.

This study set out to examine the relative influence of personal and school-based characteristics and parental involvement on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of public school performance. A national and representative sample of parents of school-aged children (N= 2008) were asked to award a grade (A, B, C, D or F) to their community school. There is a significant lack of empirical study of the factors influencing parents’ perceptions of school performance. The present study controlled for the socioeconomic status of parents and the community school being graded. Parental involvement in schools and assisting with homework are elements of parents’ relations with schools and were controlled for in the multivariate analysis. It was found that mothers and fathers are differentially influenced by personal and school-based characteristics; and, of import, there is a negative and significant association between participation in school-based activities and a father’s perception of school performance. The opposite association with participation in school-based activities was observed for mothers. Further, perceptions of “Failing” schools are influenced to a greater extent by the socioeconomic status of the parent and of the school. The results are interpreted by gendering the relations between parents and schools, and drawing from feminist standpoint theory. Particular focus is brought to the discordant association of parental involvement and the grades awarded to schools by mothers and fathers.

This study set out to examine the relative influence of personal and school-based characteristics and parental involvement on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of public school performance. A national and representative sample of parents of school-aged children (N= 2008) were asked to award a grade (A, B, C, D or F) to their community school. There is a significant lack of empirical study of the factors influencing parents’ perceptions of school performance. The present study controlled for the socioeconomic status of parents and the community school being graded. Parental involvement in schools and assisting with homework are elements of parents’ relations with schools and were controlled for in the multivariate analysis. It was found that mothers and fathers are differentially influenced by personal and school-based characteristics; and, of import, there is a negative and significant association between participation in school-based activities and a father’s perception of school performance. The opposite association with participation in school-based activities was observed for mothers. Further, perceptions of “Failing” schools are influenced to a greater extent by the socioeconomic status of the parent and of the school. The results are interpreted by gendering the relations between parents and schools, and drawing from feminist standpoint theory. Particular focus is brought to the discordant association of parental involvement and the grades awarded to schools by mothers and fathers. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

To address potential selection and school quality effects in tests of the efficacy of single-sex schools, the achievement of girls attending a public single-sex magnet middle school (N = 122) was compared to that of two samples: (a) girls who applied to but were waitlisted at the single-sex school (N = 236) and (b) girls who applied to and attended a coeducational magnet school (N = 134). Once selection and school quality effects were taken into account, the students in the single-sex and coeducational schools performed equally well. Furthermore, results suggest that student achievement is more strongly influenced by the quality of the school than its gender composition. Implications for research and social policy are discussed. / text

Abstract COGNITIVE ORIGINS OF THE “BIMBY” EFFECT: A MIXED METHODS EXPLORATION OF SURVEY RATINGS REGARDING THE QUALITY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS By James M. Ellis, Jr., Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011. Director: James H. McMillan, Ph.D. Professor of Education, School of Education Public education and public opinion are pillars of democracy. In surveys about education, respondents in aggregate almost always rate schools attended by their children highest, schools in their communities moderately, and schools in the nation poorly. This phenomenon holds for many other survey topics. Some call it “BIMBY” for “better in my back yard.” This dissertation used mixed methods to investigate BIMBY. Eight qualitative interviews with nine participants used grounded theory to generate hypotheses about BIMBY’s causes. This research revealed a qualitative “insider” view of school quality used by participants for schools familiar to them, and a more quantitative “outsider” view used for unfamiliar schools. The qualitative research generated four main hypotheses tested in a quantitative survey: xviii 1. An empathy hypothesis, tested by framing “nurturant” and “strict” sets of propositions about public schools. 2. A hypothesis about lack of information, tested by sometimes offering explicit don’t know options for school ratings. 3. A community attachment hypothesis, tested by sometimes offering questions about community activities and the like. 4. A hypothesis about a sense of the “here and now,” tested by sometimes asking respondents the number of times they changed schools. This was a full factorial design using sixteen forms of a brief mail survey. A truncated Dillman protocol was used with a randomly selected sample of 960 residences in the Richmond and Charlottesville areas. There were 208 completed surveys. The empathy experiment increased ratings for schools at all levels. Additional analyses indicated that ratings for both local and national schools were influenced by the empathy experiment and the respondent’s world view (nurturant or strict). Ratings for local schools were also influenced by the type of area in which respondents lived (urban, suburban, etc.) and opinions about their communities. Ratings for schools nationally were also influenced by the experiments regarding explicit don’t know responses and community attachment. Thus, respondents draw on different domains of opinion when rating different schools. Ratings for local schools relate to opinions about the community. Ratings for schools nationally may relate to a general world view and the respondent’s identities within the community and the nation.

ABSTRACT Key words: Dropout, repetition, scholar exclusion, school quality, General Secondary School, Mozambique. This study is a school-based research into the reasons for dropout and repetition in Mozambique. The research methodology is of a qualitative nature, which enabled the exploration of relevant themes, processes and patterns that have characterized the educational process in Mozambique, especially reasons that led to repetition and dropout, during the period between 1999 and 2005. The main reasons could be found in the whole process of teaching and learning; outdated classroom pedagogy; insufficient student participation and shortage of textbooks or teachers materials; and low teachers salaries. In addition, poverty causes many students to drop out. The main conclusion is that higher levels of repetition and dropout have cost implications, inflating enrolments and adding to total costs without necessarily leading to an improvement in learners’ outcomes. Recommendations include a redefinition of the model of secondary education in accordance with the new demands of the labour market.

This research investigates parental choice in an active preschool education market in Taiwan. Most research into parental choice of school has been conducted in quasi-markets; markets that are highly regulated by government policy. The Taiwanese preschool market could be said to be a true market, operating through supply and demand and regulated by price. How parents operate in such markets and how their choice influences what is offered, is less explored. The research consisted of following eighteen parents through the choice process. Data collection methods involved diaries completed before the child started preschool and two in-depth interviews; one at the beginning of the school year and one nine months later. The parents who supplied the information came from different educational backgrounds, social status and family structures. For most it was their first experience of choosing an educational setting for their children. Using a rational choice theoretical framework the thesis argues that there was certain rationality in the parents’ process of choice but balancing the benefits and costs of preschool education was embedded in a wider family context. In addition, the findings show that whilst the parents were initially concerned about the more structural aspects of quality, their on-going engagement with the preschool provision enabled them to have a deeper understanding of process issues. However, there were other criteria that the parents used which would suggest that they were defining quality in a way that may be more influenced by Taiwanese life and culture. One implication is that the quality of preschool provision is not likely to improve if it is purely dependent on preschools wishing to meet the parents’expectations. However, neither will it improve if the contextual conditions are ignored. The implications for Taiwanese government preschool policy are discussed.

After a court imposed desegregation plan ended in 1996, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana school district created neighborhood attendance zones for its schools, followed by a series of attendance zone changes. We use data from 1994 to 2002 to examine the impact of changes in school characteristics on simultaneous determination of house prices and liquidity in the market. A simultaneous equations model of sales price and tine-on-market is adopted that extends the hedonic price model by controlling for localized neighborhood market conditions. Our empirical results show that improving and declining school performance can have asymmetric capitalization effects. Further, as indicated by the search-market model, liquidity absorbs part of the capitalization of school quality; for example, declining school performance prolongs houses’ marketing time.