Teacher career paths,teacher quality,and persistence in the classroom: Are public schools keeping their best?

In this paper we examine the mobility of early‐career teachers of varying quality, measured using value‐added estimates of teacher performance. Unlike previous studies that have examined these issues, we focus on the variation in these effects across the effectiveness distribution. We find that, on average, more effective teachers tend to stay in their initial schools and in the teaching profession. But there also appears to be heterogeneity in mobility behavior across the performance distribution and evidence that teacher mobility is affected by student demographics and achievement levels. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The use of a 3-D laser scanner to document ephemeral evidence at crime scenes and postmortem examinations

Proper documentation of physical evidence at both crimes scenes and postmortem examination is crucial for downstream analysis, interpretation, and presentation in court. Ephemeral or transient evidence poses particular challenges to investigators, as its very nature renders it difficult or impossible to seize and maintain in its original physical state. The use of a hand-held three-dimensional (3-D) laser scanner is proposed to capture and document such evidence, both in the field and at autopsy. Advantages of the scanner over traditional means of documentation such as photography or casting include the ability to obtain measurements in all dimensions, the ability to reconstruct missing elements, and the ease with which generated images can be interpreted by the jury at trial. Potential scenarios warranting the use of the scanner are identified, and the limitations of its use are discussed.     

International Trust and Public Opinion About World Affairs

This study argues that citizens base their opinions about world affairs in part on generalized beliefs about how much their nation can trust other nations. Using original data from a two-wave panel survey and a cross-sectional survey, we show that Americans hold stable, internally consistent, and largely pessimistic generalized beliefs about whether the United States can trust other nations. We find that social trust, political trust, partisanship, and age influence this form of trust, which we call international trust. We then demonstrate that international trust shapes whether Americans prefer internationalism to isolationism, perceive specific foreign nations as unfriendly and threatening, and favor military action against Iraq. The role of international trust in shaping opinion may be consistent with theories of low-information rationality, but competing interpretations are also plausible.     

Can a Dominating Orientation Enhance the Integrativeness of Negotiated Agreements?

A dominating orientation is commonly viewed as an impediment to integrative negotiation. However, a study of Norwegian and American negotiators shows that a dominating orientation may, in fact, enhance the integrative nature of some negotiations under certain circumstances. Implications for managers and negotiation trainers are discussed.     

Gender differences in occupational stress among correctional officers

Stress that relates to the work environment has received increasing attention. However, research on gender differences and work-related stress is limited. Previous research has shown that female correctional officers tend to experience higher levels of stress than do their male counterparts. However, this research found that female and male correctional officers experience similar levels of stress as measured both objectively and subjectively. Ulis result should not be surprising given the existing working conditions in most prisons today.     

Empty Ethics and Reasonable Responsibility: Vocabularies of Motive among Law and Business Students

Despite professional nonns of being socially responsible and providing service to the underprivileged, the attitudes of law students toward ethical duties and public service bear similarities to those of business students. Using data from multiple interviews with luw and business school students at one university, 1 find that these attitudes develop in response to the expectations of peers and professors during school experiences. Ethics courses are marginalized by the schools, and courses focus on such pragmatic issues as the professional code of conduct (law school) or how the appearance of social responsibility affects the bottom line (business school). Provided with little guidance on what they might do when they encounter real ethical dilemmas, students karn vocabularies of motive concerning how lawyers and managers should balance profits, cany out responsibilities to various stakeholders, and weigh ethical concerns, and they then moderate their own expressions of extreme self-interest or self-sacrifice. Both groups learn to maintain social responsibilities only within reason, emphasizing the separation of work from personal convictions. These elements have implications for the perfonnuwe of public service in their future careers, as well as for a scholarly understanding of professionalism.