Public Policy Commons^™

Selection Bias In College Admissions Test Scores, Jesse Rothstein, Melissa Clark, Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Data from college admissions tests can provide a valuable measure of student achievement, but the non-representativeness of test-takers is an important concern. We examine selectivity bias in both state-level and school-level SAT and ACT averages. The degree of selectivity may differ importantly across and within schools, and across and within states. To identify within-state selectivity, we use a control function approach that conditions on scores from a representative test. Estimates indicate strong selectivity of test-takers in "ACT states," where most college- bound students take the ACT, and much less selectivity in SAT states. To identify within- and between-school selectivity, we …

Youtube: Spotlight On Policy, Dr. Greg Hill On Educational Attainment, Greg Hill

Gregory C. Hill

In this episode of SPOTLIGHT ON POLICY, Dr. Greg Hill, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration discusses educational attainment measures for the Boise MSA and Idaho. Spotlight on Policy is a production of the Public Policy Center at Boise State University. http://ppa.boisestate.edu/centerppa/

An "Act Of God": Race, Religion, And Policy In The Wake Of Hurricane Katrina, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

This essay addresses how characterization of Hurricane Katrina as an “act of God” exposed historical racial cleavages and policy challenges in post-Katrina America. Act-of-God rhetoric not only stemmed from religious history but was also largely informed by America's racial legacy. Usage of the term often absolved individuals and institutions from personal responsibility and economic liability, especially when the specter of race could be invoked. The term also revealed generational ideological differences within the Black community itself, posing significant questions about the discourse of race and religion in post–civil rights America.

Keeping National Health Insurance (Nhi) Accessible For All. 台北時報論壇, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Media reports say that Taiwan Health Insurance Bureau and the Department of Health are proposing an amendment to the health insurance laws to require every returned overseas Taiwanese who has been abroad for more than six months be resident in Taiwan for four months before he or she becomes eligible to re-enroll in the National Health Insurance (NHI) program. The proposed amendment arose from a small portion of overseas Taiwanese who are have allegedly played medical tourists, returning to Taiwan for medical treatments under the NHI plan. The amendments’ proponents urged “restoring equality” in the NHI. However, the proposal could …

Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, And Support For Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis, Richard Lau, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

This paper examines the role of self-interest and symbolic attitudes as predictors of support for two domestic policy issues—guaranteed jobs and incomes and national health insurance—in the American National Election Survey (ANES) between 1972 and 2004. As was the case in 1976 when Sears, Lau, Tyler, and Allen (1980) first explored this topic, symbolic attitudes continue to be much more important predictors of policy attitudes than various indicators of self-interest over the 30 years we analyze. We explore this finding further to determine whether any individual/internal and external/contextual variables affect the magnitude of self-interest effects on policy support. Five possible …

Consulting And Evaluation With Nonprofit And Community-Based Organizations, Judah J. Viola, Susan D. Mcmahon

Judah J. Viola, Ph.D.

What Bush Did Right - On China, Zheng Wang

Zheng Wang

No abstract provided.

Race, Place, And Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles To Reclaim, Rebuild, And Revitalize New Orleans And The Gulf Coast, Robert Bullard, Beverly Wright

Robert D Bullard

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans leaving death and destruction across the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf Coast counties;The lethargic and inept emergency response that followed exposed institutional flaws, poor planning; and false assumptions that are built into the emergency response and homeland security plans and programs. Questions linger: What went wrong? Can it happen again? Is our government equipped to plan for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade disasters? Can the public trust government response to be fair? Does race matter? Racial disparities exist in disaster response, cleanup, rebuilding, reconstruction, and …

Using Facility-Location Models To Optimally Locate Hierarchical Community-Based Health Facilities In Davao City, Myra Silva, Michael Johnson

Michael P. Johnson

Alternative hierarchical location-allocation models are used to locate two types of community-based health facilities in Davao City relative to population locations. Accounting for factors such as politics and resource availability, different optimization approaches were implemented to locate a mix of health centers and nutrition posts across the rural and urban areas of the city. The results were evaluated based on operating costs, average travel distance and population coverage. Computational results revealed that, by optimally locating barangay health centers and health posts, the current level of public investment in the health delivery infrastructure can be sufficient to cover a significant proportion …

Contemporary Cases: Policy, Privatization And Networks, Tony Carrizales, Andrew Ewoh

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Editor's introduction.

Environmental Challenges And Opportunities: Local-Global Perspectives On Canadian Issues, Christopher Gore, Peter Stoett

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Local Government Responses To Climate Change: Our Last, Best Hope?, Christopher Gore, Pamela Robinson

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

An Interface-Driven Analysis Of User Behavior Of An Electronic Health Records System, Kai Zheng, Rema Padman, Michael Johnson, Herbert Diamond

Michael P. Johnson

Objectives: This study sought to investigate user interactions with an electronic health records (EHR) system by uncovering hidden navigational patterns in the EHR usage data automatically recorded as clinicians navigated through the system’s software user interface (UI) to perform different clinical tasks. Design: A homegrown EHR was adapted to allow real-time capture of comprehensive UI interaction events. These events, constituting time-stamped event sequences, were used to replay how the EHR was used in actual patient care settings. The study site is an ambulatory primary care clinic at an urban teaching hospital. Internal medicine residents were the primary EHR users. Measurements: …