Roy M. Howsen

Student academic achievement and the degree of market concentration in education

Abstract There is a considerable literature concerned with the relationship between student achievement and various explanatory variables relevant to the educational process. This paper differs from the previous literature in that it includes a measure of the degree of concentration in educational markets. To the extent that school administrators face increased competition for students and their associated subsidies, school administrators would be expected to behave more consistently with respect to the maximization of educational utility from the viewpoint of school clients. We find that increases in the degree of market concentration lead to decreases in student achievement. Policy issues are addressed.

Correlates of prisoner misconduct

Using a nationwide sample of 5586 state-prison inmates, relationships between the frequency of officially reported institutional misconduct (as reported by the inmates) and certain preinstitutional and institution-related inmate traits were examined. Findings indicate that rule-breaking behavior is associated with being young, black, and male, having a relatively high number of prior convictions, having been unemployed prior to incarceration, and having been imprisoned for a relatively long period of time. Furthermore, such misconduct shows no relationship to domestic status, educational achievement, alcohol and drug problems, military service, income level, current offense, interaction with family and friends outside of prison, hours spent outside of cell, and daily activity. Policy implications are addressed. Misconduct is considered within the broad context of interaction among inmate traits, prison-level characteristics, and extrainstitutional factors.

An Investigation of the Effect of Class Size on Student Academic Achievement.

Despite the existence of a considerable and current educational literature concerned with the effect of class size on student achievement, the results of attempts to empirically identify the relationship between the variables class size and student achievement are mixed at best. These attempts have typically been hindered, however, by the existence, at least, of one of four factors: (1) the use of a student/teacher ratio as the measure of class size resulting in measurement error; (2) the estimation of a mis‐specified model resulting from the failure to control for family effects (i.e., student innate ability); (3) the general failure to take into account the endogeneity of class size with respect to student achievement; and (4) the employment of an incorrect functional form when specifying the relationship between class size and student achievement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of class size on student achievement, unhindered by the existence of the four factors typically associated with prior attempts. The results of this reinvestigation suggest that the relationship between class size and student achievement is not only non‐linear, but non‐monotonic.

On the determination of the critical level of market concentration in education

Abstract Although there are many studies in which attempts have been made to determine the effects of market power on the various aspects of market conduct and performance, there are few that test for the existence of a critical level of concentration, and none other than this study that test for such a critical level in the market for education. For the sample and time period, the results of this study suggest that the critical Herfindahl index was 0.50. Those educational markets with an associated Herfindahl index at or above 0.5% can expect, on average, a 1.6 percentage point decrease or 3% reduction in student achievement scores. Policy issues are addressed.

Crime and community heterogeneity: race, ethnicity, and religion

Prior studies have explored the relationship between race and religion and their effect on various crimes. In the USA race is typically defined as the proportion of a community that is African-American or nonwhite. Likewise, religion is defined as the proportion of a community that adheres to any religious denomination. This study extends earlier work by employing Herfindahl indices as measures of community homogeneity with respect to race and ethnicity as well as religious denominations. It also measures religiosity based on four different denominational groups, rather than religiosity as an aggregate. Results indicate that as a communitys degree of homogeneity increases, in terms of both race/ethnicity and religion, crime decreases; and that the effects of religion on crime may vary by denomination.

An Examination of the Effect of Elementary School Size on Student Academic Achievement

Prior studies that have investigated the relationship between school size and student academic achievement have produced conflicting results. For example, some studies found a positive relationship between school size and student achievement; other studies found that the relationship is negative. Typically, however, these past studies have not accounted for the influence of student ability in their analysis of the impact of school size on student achievement. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of school size on student achievement while accounting for student ability, among other variables. The results reported in this paper suggest that school size has a nonlinear relationship with respect to student achievement. Thus, there is an optimal school size with respect to the maximization of student achievement.

Women in Prison: A Profile:

indicate that female arrest rates, gravity of offense, and convictions and incarcerations have exhibited greater percentage increases than have those associated with male offenders (lacovetta, 1975:129-130; Lewis, 1974:74). From 1974 to 1982, the proportion of female inmates increased from 3.5 percent to 4.4 percent of the total state and federal prison inmate population in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice, 1982:3). The number of women in prison grew by more than 2,000 to 17,649 during 1982, a 14 percent increase over the previous year (U.S. Department of Justice, 1982, 1983). In spite of these increases, the female prison inmate has continued to maintain a low profile in the criminal justice field and has been-referred toas &dquo;the forgotten offender&dquo; by those who wish tocall attention to her plight and to bring about change in her situation. Several explanations have been offered for the lack of interest in women inmates. Their crimes inconvenience society less than do those of men. Most women prisoners have not been involved with organized crime, with crime involving high losses of property, or with crimes that have endangered large numbers of people. Furthermore, women represent a small proportion of the total inmate population and draw comparatively little attention to themselves in terms of prison disruption and violence (Simon, 1975:64). The purpose of this paper is to describe women inmates in state prisons in the United States. This study provides a profile constructed from information on a random sample of inmates housed in state penal institutions in 1979 and includes information on personal characteristics; current offense and sentence, including parole hearings and anticipated release; probation and incarceration history; conformity to prison rules; prison recreation and work activities; and interaction with family members and friends outside of prison. Previous profiles of female inmates are more narrow in scope in terms of both the population studied and the variables analyzed (Texas Correction Department, 1971; Hendrix, 1972; Kratcoski and Scheurman, 1974; Lewis, 1974; Gattone, et. al., 1976; Foster, 1977; French, 1977; Glick and

Effect of Student Attendance on Performance: Comment on Lamdin

Evidence that student attendance has a positive and significant effect on student performance was reported by Lamdin (1996). Our comment suggests that Lamdins results are biased because of his failure to include measures of student innate ability and competition in the explanation of student performance. When these two variables are taken into account, student attendance is shown to be insignificant in terms of its effect on student performance. Thus, policies designed to increase student attendance may result in an inappropriate use of education resources.

Teachers, race and student achievement revisited

Within the education literature, a controversy exists with respect to the issue of matching student and teacher race in an effort to improve student performance. Ehrenberg et al. (1995) finds very little support for this issue, while more recently Dee (2004) finds that there are significant educational gains when students are assigned to an own-race teacher. Dees result is found after confirming that there was no association between assignment of an own-race teacher and student characteristics, i.e., sorting of students did not transpire. We extend Dees work by including the effects of student innate ability and teacher gender on student achievement. Our findings indicate that once these two variables are taken into consideration, sorting of students does transpire, and matching students and teachers of similar race has no statistically significant affect on student achievement.

Blacks in Prison: A Profile

From a 1979 nationwide self-report survey of 11,397 inmates in state penal institutions, 5,385 of them black, a profile of black inmates based on comparisons with their white counterparts is constructed. Areas of analysis include: personal characteristics, drug use, current offense and sentence, probation and incarceration history, conformity to prison rules, prison recreation and work activities, and interaction withfamily members andfriends outside ofprison. Implications for racial discrimination in the prison setting are explored, and the need for treatment, facility, and program reform is noted.