Suspension of Deportation - Toward a New Hardship Standard

This Comment examines the development of the extreme hardship standard in congressional legislation and judicial developments, with specific emphasis on the Supreme Court\u27s decision in INS v. Wang. The author suggests that the extreme hardship standard poses too high a hurdle for many aliens who wish to remain in the United States. The author argues that, in interpreting the extreme hardship standard, the Court has raised more questions than it answered, and that it effectively will have a chilling effect on the expansion of suspension relief. The author concludes that any changes to the extreme hardship standard must come from Congress, and proposes several recommendations for amendments to the existing suspension of deportation statute

Perceptions of Teachers: Effects of Principals Uses of Humor on Teacher Job Satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to determine if teachers\u27 job satisfaction was greater when working for principals with higher perceived use of humor. The study also examined the effects of principals\u27 use of humor on perceived leadership effectiveness and level of personal relationship. The researcher used a 36-question survey instrument to collect data. A population of 796 educators in a public school system in Northeast Tennessee was given an opportunity to participate in this research. There were 450 completed surveys (56%) returned. There were 4 major findings from this study. Teachers reported that it was appropriate for principals to use humor in a school setting to a significant level (p \u3c 0.001). Data from the surveys also indicated that teachers had significantly higher reported job satisfaction (p \u3c 0.001) when working for principals who used humor when compared to principals who did not use humor regularly. The research also showed that teachers had significantly higher reported personal relationships (p \u3c 0.001) with principals who use humor regularly. In addition, teachers in this study rated leadership effectiveness significantly higher ( p \u3c 0.001) for principals who regularly used humor when compared to those who did not

Alleged Insanity: Frank Johnson Sr., Racial Injustice, and the Failure of the Mental Health Care System In South Carolina

This thesis is about Frank Johnson Sr. and the circumstances that led to his downfall as a farmer and father of six, to his tragic death in the isolation of a racially segregated mental institution 18 miles away from his home. Using his life and incarceration at the South Carolina State Park mental health facility, I argue that racial injustice contributed to his tragic death and the woefully inadequate treatment thousands of African Americans in South Carolina received during Jim Crow. Additionally, I argue that the tragic circumstances around my great grandfather’s institutionalization and death were part of an enduring pattern that perpetuated the level of mistrust towards the mental health care system among African Americans that persists to this date. Through extensive research, I have been able to discover the circumstances that led to the institutionalization of Frank Johnson Sr. In addition to this discovery, I also believe that I have been able to formulate three potentially viable theories regarding the events that occurred leading up to his institutionalization, during his stay at South Carolina State Park Hospital, and the circumstances that led to his violent and sudden death. Through an examination of my great-grandfather\u27s life, it is my hope to present readers with an analysis of the types of treatments African Americans living in South Carolina endured while being institutionalized at a time when blatant racism was openly practiced, in parallel of a time when medical practices in the mental health care system were still fairly new

School Boards and Student Achievement: The Relationship between Previously Identified School Board Characteristics and Improved Student Learning

Our country has a moral and ethical responsibility to educate all students. The right to an education is fundamental to the American values. Locally elected school boards have received significant scrutiny as questions have been asked about their ability to provide adequate and effective governance such that student achievement increases. This mixed-methods research study provides empirical support for the efficacy of publicly elected school boards being linked to improved student achievement results. This research study draws from school boards located in Washington State. A purposeful population sample of 23 school districts were selected based on specific criteria for inclusion in the research study. The sample was evaluated for appropriate distribution across demographic, geographic, and academic factors. Academic data was used to categorize each school district as (1) low performing or (2) high performing. The sample consisted of 13 low performing districts and 10 high performing districts. Direct observation was conducted using previously recorded audio and video school board meetings. The Grounded Theory Approach was used to collect, code, and analyze the observations. The individual school board characteristics from the Balanced Governance Approach® were used as the observational categories and were used for coding the observational data. These data were transformed into categorical data indicating two categories: (1) not effective and (2) effective. The district performance and school board effectiveness categorical data were used to run inferential statistics using Pearson’s chi-square test for independence and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). P values from chi-square and Fisher’s Exact Test indicate a statistically significant relationship between six of the 10 individual school board characteristics® and significance was also reached when evaluating the characteristics as a single variable. SEM provided insights into the interactions and effects the 10 individual board member characteristics® had on the dependent variable of improved student achievement. The findings of this research study confirm and extend the empirical evidence that has been presented over the last 20 years linking school board characteristics and improved student achievement results. Keywords: School board, Governance, Student Achievement Index, Decision-Output Theory, Balanced Governance Approach®, Individual Board Member Characteristics, Grounded Theory Approach, chi-square, Fisher’s Exact Test, Structural Equation Modelin

Three essays on consumption and geography

This dissertation consists of three essays studying the measurement and behavior of real consumption. The first two essays highlight the importance of accounting for geographic differences in new product entry to accurately measure real consumption using household-level spending data and a model to construct cost-of-living-adjusted price indices. The third essay uses a model of a household’s consumption-savings decision and GMM estimation to examine changes in real consumption’s behavior during a period of significant economic transformation in Japan. The first essay estimates real consumption's growth rate and volatility in light of three new facts documenting geographic differences in consumption: (1) consumers in separate markets buy different products, (2) a product's market share varies geographically conditional on relative price, and (3) product variety growth and its cyclicality varies geographically. These facts suggest that existing methods to account for product variety changes overstate the benefits to consumers by overlooking geographic diversity in consumption baskets. Quantitatively, focusing on aggregate product variety changes overstates real consumption growth by 2.75 percentage points primarily by assuming that local product entry benefits all consumers nationally. Nonetheless, accounting for product variety changes is important. Our real consumption series grows 3 percentage points faster than a statistical agency benchmark and has twice the volatility due to product variety’s procyclicality. The second essay examines how accounting for local product variety changes alters aggregate welfare estimates and our understanding of regional heterogeneity. Concentrating on in-home product spending from 2004-2014, aggregate quarterly consumption-equivalent welfare was 16.20 percent higher than a statistical agency benchmark indicates. However, focusing on aggregate statistics masks large geographic differences that statistical agency methods understate, implying greater real consumption growth inequality across regions than previously believed. The third essay studies the dynamics of consumption, the real interest rate, and measures of labor input in Japan. We identify structural breaks in macroeconomic aggregates during the 1990s and associate them with the Bank of Japan’s zero interest rate policy and the increase in the consumption tax rate in April 1997. GMM estimation shows that the mid-1990s are characterized by breaks in the structural parameters governing household consumption and labor supply decisions