Publication Type: Symposium Paper
Abstract: For years, educational entities have collected data on school process and student learning. Recent accountability policies have brought public attention to these data, increased the amount of data collected, and tied funding to certain characteristics of these data. Consequently, educators respond to reporting requirements while simultaneously struggling with better ways to understand these data internally to improve practice. To understand and improve district data use, individuals from the Natrona County School District (NCSD) commissioned a district-wide evaluation of data uses and procedures for data-based decision-making. In this report, we present findings from this evaluation. Results provided an in-depth description of data use at every level, showing the hardships of using data but also highlighting many positive structures upon which to build an effective initiative. As a result of this evaluation, the authors recommended the following: (a) a framework to guide NCSD in establishing itself as a data-informed district where data and practice are integrated throughout; (b) a plan for acquiring an efficient data system that can integrate data district-wide; (c) a blueprint for NCSD to use in establishing a healthy, district-wide data initiative; and (d) specific issues for NCSD to address in getting up to speed on data use, such as school dropouts, school differences, public perception, and areas for further study.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Industrial districts, i.e. the spatial concentration of complmentarily specialized firms of the same industry, have aroused much interest among social scientists. Proponents argue that indusrtial districts demonstrate the beginning of a reverse of industrial order from giant corporations back towards regional economies organized around networks of small firms. This paper employs event history analysis on business failure rates of Taiwan's bicycle firms from 1980 to 1996 to examine propositions derived from the industrial district theory. I find that district firms do out-survive the non-district ones, as predicted by the theory. In the context of industrial districts, specialists have higher survival advantage. But small firms benefit less from the district settings than the big ones, contrary to the received wisdom among students of industrial districts. I conclude with some re-thinking about the industrial district theory.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The literature on local government home rule in the United States focuses on general-purpose governments, such as cities and counties, while generally ignoring school districts. This paper analyzes the discretionary authority of local school boards in three states, California, Georgia, and Ohio, using Zimmerman�s (1981) fiscal, structural, functional, and personnel home rule framework. This paper finds important differences exist among the three states in the amount of discretionary authority granted to local school districts by the state government, especially in the area of fiscal autonomy. School districts in Georgia and Ohio possess more fiscal autonomy than school districts in California. This paper outlines some important criteria to use when comparing local school district discretionary authority across states. This paper is the beginning of a more thorough research project to measure and explain variations in local school district discretionary authority across states.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In Bush v. Vera, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the violation of “traditional districting principles” such as geographical compactness and whether district lines are to be drawn over existing political subdivisions can cause “expressive harms” to voters and politicians – perhaps by undermining trust in government and confusing voters. But political scientists have found little evidence of such harms (Altman 1998; but see Engstrom 2000). This research has focused exclusively on the U.S. House of Representatives and utilized only American National Election Study data. Further, this literature has ignored an important district characteristic: population size. Federalist and Anti-Federalist writings show a deep belief that district population can impact the communication linkage between representatives and constituents. To fill these gaps in the literature, I use survey data from the Pew Research Center and the 2008 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project and examine whether district characteristics like population size and compactness effect citizen attitudes toward government at the state level. To accurately test the effects of such district and state level characteristics on individual opinions, I utilize multilevel modeling.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper joins the debate on the industrial districts/inter-firm network in contributing to regional development by examining the conditions that give rise to the success of industrial clusters. Contrary to existing views (i.e. Piore and Sabel 1984, Sabel and Zeitlin 1997; Best 1990) which generally assume industrial districts lead to success based on individual cases of success, this paper examine the claims of the advantages of industrial district and set forth conditions for a successful industrial cluster through a comparative study between two countries, Taiwan and Korea, using an in-depth case study of the bicycle industry.
Contrary to the existing argument of the industrial districts/agglomeration (i.e. Harrison 1994), which emphasizes the role of geographical proximity in facilitating inter-firm cooperation, my findings suggest that the importance of the social interaction among firms rooted in the egalitarian structure allow such cooperation and knowledge diffusion to take place as seen in the case of the Taiwanese bicycle industry. Moreover, I argue that the egalitarian social structure (expressed in power symmetry among firms) promote open networks, which encourages technology and knowledge diffusion to cascade to other industries. This view is supported by the fact that in the case of Korea, despite of the state�s push for industrial districts, the power asymmetry among firms suggests distant and dependent relationship and leads to a failed project of the industrial district. The Korean industrial cluster as seen in the bicycle industry does not generate knowledge and information exchange as predicted in the existing literature.