Associations Between Suicidal High School Students’ Help-Seeking and Their Attitudes and Perceptions of Social Environment

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents, many of whom fail to disclose suicide concerns to adults who might help. This study examined patterns and predictors of help-seeking behavior among adolescents who seriously considered suicide in the past year. 2,737 students (50.9?% female, 46.9?% male; racial distribution 79.5?% Caucasian, 11.9?% Hispanic/Latino, and 3.6?% Black/African-American) from 12 high schools in rural/underserviced communities were surveyed to assess serious suicide ideation (SI) in the past year, disclosure of SI to adults and peers, attempts to get help, attitudes about help-seeking, perceptions of school engagement, and coping support. Help-seeking was defined as both disclosing SI to an adult and perceiving oneself as seeking help. The relationship between adolescents' help-seeking disclosure and (1) help-seeking attitudes and (2) perceptions of social resources was examined among suicidal help-seeking youth, suicidal non-help-seeking youth, and non-suicidal youth. Of the 381 (14?%) students reporting SI, only 23?% told an adult, 29?% sought adult help, and 15?% did both. Suicidal help-seekers were similar to non-suicidal peers on all measures of help-seeking attitudes and social environment perceptions. Positive attitudes about help-seeking from adults at school, perceptions that adults would respond to suicide concerns, willingness to overcome peer secrecy requests, and greater coping support and engagement with the school were associated with students' increased disclosure of SI and help-seeking. This study supports prevention strategies that change student norms, attitudes and social environments to promote help-seeking among adolescents with SI. Promising intervention targets include increasing students' perceptions of the availability and capability of adults to help them, and strengthening students' understanding of how existing resources can help them cope.     

Transparency and Public Value—Analyzing the Transparency Practices and Value Creation of Public Utilities

This article examines to what extent transparency is a condition for the creation of public value. Transparency is usually narrowly defined as a tool for external stakeholders to monitor the internal workings of an organization, but public value management positions transparency as a broader instrument for actively engaging stakeholders. We investigate empirically whether transparency is indeed necessary to create public value, distinguishing between transparency about operational capacity, authorizing environment, and value proposition. We find that more transparent public organizations achieved higher public value scores, especially if they disclosed information about the design and dynamics of their authorizing environment.     

The effects of NBPTS‐certified teachers on student achievement

In this study, we consider the efficacy of a relatively new and widely accepted certification system for teachers established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). We utilize an extensive database covering the universe of teachers and students in Florida for a four‐year span to determine the relationship between NBPTS certification and the impact of teachers on student test scores from both low‐stakes and high‐stakes exams. Contrary to some previous studies, we find evidence that NBPTS certification provides a positive signal of a teacher's contribution to student achievement only in a few isolated cases. However, our results do reinforce evidence from previous research that the process of becoming NBPTS certified does not increase teacher productivity. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

How bad is the federal budget deficit?

This paper describes two views on the economic effects of government budget deficits. According to the traditional view, deficits have a variety of adverse economic consequences. In particular, they cause domestic residents to save less and eventually to have a lower standard of living than would have occurred if the same level of government spending had been financed entirely with current taxes. A competing view, known as the Ricardian view, holds that the economy is little affected by whether a given level of government spending is financed entirely by current taxes or by some feasible combination of taxes and borrowing. Most of the empirical research on the economic consequences of deficits has failed to isolate the effects predicted by the traditional view. The paper also discusses why the conventional methods of measuring the government budget deficit are not the most economically meaningful ones.     

Critical reactions to the japanese management model: A public sector perspective

Because there has been considerable interest in the Japanese management model, this study explores its limitations for the American setting and particularly the American public sector. These limitations include (1) cultural barriers, (2) the incompleteness of the model, and (3) undesirable elements in the model. This analysis concludes that there is little new in humanistic or participative terms to be found in the Japanese approach. Despite several objectionable elements in the model, some of its devices are instructive and may be carefully adapted to public sector use, but adoption of the whole model is unlikely and undesirable.     

Civil Service Reform as National Security: The Homeland Security Act of 2002

The events of 9/11 have influenced policy making in public administration. The Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security, contained language that empowered the secretary of homeland security and the director of the Office of Personnel Management to establish a personnel management system outside the normal provisions of the federal civil service. Why did civil service reform succeed as part of this legislation when previous attempts at large‐scale reform had failed? A case analysis of the enactment of civil service reform in the Homeland Security Act points to theories of policy emergence and certain models of presidential and congressional policy making. In this case, civil service reform became associated with national security instead of management reform. An assessment of the rhetorical arguments used to frame this policy image offers a powerful explanation for the adoption of the personnel management reforms in the Homeland Security Act. This case has implications for understanding how policy makers might approach future management reform agendas.     

RECONCILING PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AND ABORIGINAL SELF-DETERMINATION/SELF-MANAGEMENT: IS ATSIC SUCCEEDING?

Abstract: Since the early 1970s commonwealth governments have been pursuing policies of self-determination/self-management in relation to Aborigines. In 1987, the Hawke government announced its intention to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) to further this policy goal. During the debates over ATSIC's formation, the issue of public accountability in the existing administration of Aboriginal affairs came to public prominence. The result was some extensive reworking of the ATSIC proposal, which in 1989 reemerged with a strengthened emphasis on public accountability. This article traces the events and arguments surrounding ATSIC's formation and then goes on to examine ATSIC in practice. It asks whether ATSIC is succeeding in reconciling the two imperatives of Aboriginal self-determination/self-management and public accountability.