Racial Disparities in Service Referrals for Families in the Child Welfare System

Among families in the child welfare system, family reunification depends largely upon the services to which families are referred. This study examines whether race/ethnicity influences the number and types of services to which families are referred. Findings suggest that compared to African American families, Hispanic families were more often referred to psychosocial services (e.g., mental health) than basic needs (e.g., housing). These findings indicate a need to reduce service referral disparities between ethnic groups.     

Legal Subjectivity and the ‘Right to be Forgotten’: A Rancièrean Analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Google</Emphasis>

This article discusses the right to be forgotten. The landmark Google ruling of the European Court of Justice gave this ambiguous right new weight and raised several urgent questions. This article considers what kind of person is presupposed and constructed when somebody invokes their right to be forgotten. The aim is to engage in an experimental reading of the ruling in the framework of contemporary political theory, namely, the philosophy of Jacques Rancière. The analysis shows that even though the right to be forgotten is a new legal and rhetorical instrument, there are good grounds for being critical of its underlying logic and sceptical of the novelty thereof. The judgment can be understood as a reiteration and consolidation of the same impotent human rights thinking that law often seems forced to contend itself with, no matter how radical our intentions may be.     

The role of teacher quality in retention and hiring: Using applications to transfer to uncover preferences of teachers and schools

Many large urban school districts are rethinking their personnel management strategies, often giving increased control to schools in the hiring of teachers, reducing, for example, the importance of seniority. If school hiring authorities are able to make good decisions about whom to hire, these reforms have the potential to benefit schools and students. Prior research on teacher transfers uses career history data, identifying the school in which a teacher teaches in each year. When such data are used to see which teachers transfer, it is unclear the extent to which the patterns are driven by teacher preferences or school preferences, because the matching of teachers to schools is a two‐sided choice. This study uses applications‐to‐transfer data to examine separately which teachers apply for transfer and which get hired and, in so doing, differentiates teacher from school preferences. Holding all else equal, we find that teachers with better pre‐service qualifications (certification exam scores, college competitiveness) are more likely to apply for transfer, while teachers whose students demonstrate higher achievement growth are less likely. On the other hand, schools prefer to hire “higher quality” teachers across measures that signal quality. The results suggest that not only do more effective teachers prefer to stay in their schools but that schools are able to identify and hire the best candidates when given the opportunity © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Effects of Mug Book Size and Computerized Pruning on the Usefulness of Dynamic Mug Book Procedures

Abstract

A recurrent problem for the legal system is persons claiming memory loss in relation to crime events of which they are suspected. In the present study, individuals were tested as perpetrators having first read a story about “themselves” stabbing another man to death. Participants' memory of the story was tested at three sessions (30 minutes, one week and three weeks later). The genuine memory of one group was tested at all three sessions, whilst a second group simulated memory impairments at the first session and a third group simulated memory impairments at the first two sessions. At the third test session, all three groups were tested on what they actually remembered. Results showed a decrease in memory after simulation of impaired memory, as compared with the controls, but repeated simulation did not seem to be of importance for free recall and recognition. It is suggested that people have specific ideas and conceptions about how memory and forgetting work, ideas that might be used when simulating memory impairments in order to deny guilt. Although one should be cautious when generalizing the findings to real life events, the results are considered to be of relevance within both the legal- and the memory theoretical frameworks.