District variations in educational resources and student outcomes

Abstract Since the 1970s, poorer school districts lacking educational resources have formed coalitions and sued their respective states. Their lawsuits claim that interdistrict variations in educational resources violate state constitutions because they deny poorer school districts an equal educational opportunity. Using data from school districts in Virginia, this research investigates two questions. First, whether a school district's level of educational resources is associated with its socioeconomic characteristics. Second, whether interdistrict variations in student outcomes (achievements, attainments and aspirations) are associated with interdistrict variations in educational resources. Our results indicate that resources are associated with a school district's socioeconomic characteristics and that resources are associated with student outcomes. However, there is evidence of effects of resources on student outcomes only for attainments and aspirations, not for math and reading test scores

Turning The Other Cheek: Reassessing The Impact Of Religion On Punitive Ideology

Religion has long been recognized as an underlying aspect of correctional policies. Researchers, however, have only recently begun to move beyond considerations of how fundamentalist Christian affiliations might shape preferences for punitive correctional policies. The present study broadens the extant research by examining multiple aspects of religious beliefs and how they affect support for capital punishment and harsher local courts. Analyses of General Social Survey data show that religion has divergent effects. Beyond a mere fundamentalist or conservative religious view, those who have a rigid and moralistic approach to religion and who imagine God as a dispassionate, powerful figure who dispenses justice are more likely to harbor punitive sentiments toward offenders. In contrast, those who have a gracious or loving image of God and who are compassionate toward others - that is, those who take seriously the admonition to turn the other cheek - are less supportive of get tough policies. In the end, not only is religion a multi-dimensional phenomenon but also its features likely coalesce to divide believers into opposite camps-with one set of attributes fostering harsh sentiments toward offenders and another set of attributes tempering punitiveness and justifying interventions aimed at helping the criminally wayward. © 2005 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

The Pragmatic American: Attributions Of Crime And The Hydraulic Relation Hypothesis

Attribution theory argues that a hydraulic relation exists between dispositional and situational attribution styles, causing people to endorse one style at the expense of the other. That is, attribution theorists predict that there should be a strong negative relationship between attribution styles. We test this prediction using data collected in Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida, and two national polls. Our investigation shows that, rather than a bifurcated view of crime causation, Americans manifest a complex attributional style that views crime emerging from multiple sources. We discuss how these findings reveal that the American public tends to be not ideological but pragmatic in its view of crime causation and, ultimately, in the crime control policies it is willing to endorse. © 2010 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences