Student and school factors associated with school suspension : A multilevel analysis of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States.

One of the common issues schools face is how best to handle challenging student behaviors such as violent behavior, antisocial behavior, bullying, school rule violations, and interrupting other students' learning. School suspension may be used to remove students engaging in challenging behaviors from the school for a period of time. However, the act of suspending students from school may worsen rather than improve their behavior. Research shows that suspensions predict a range of student outcomes, including crime, delinquency, and drug use. It is therefore crucial to understand the factors associated with the use of school suspension, particularly in sites with different policy approaches to problem behaviors. This paper draws on data from state-representative samples of 3,129 Grade 7 and 9 students in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia sampled in 2002. Multilevel modeling examined student and school level factors associated with student-reported school suspension. Results showed that both student (being male, previous student antisocial and violent behavior, rebelliousness, academic failure) and school (socioeconomic status of the school, aggregate measures of low school commitment) level factors were associated with school suspension and that the factors related to suspension were similar in the two states. The implications of the findings for effective school behavior management policy are that, rather than focusing only on the student, both student and school level factors need to be addressed to reduce the rates of school suspension.

Effects of early adolescent alcohol use on mid-adolescent school performance and connection: a longitudinal study of students in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States

This article examines the effect of early adolescent alcohol use on mid-adolescent school suspension, truancy, commitment, and academic failure in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia. Also of interest was whether associations remain after statistically controlling for other factors known to predict school outcomes.

Ethical transnational corporate activity at home and abroad: A proposal for reforming continuous disclosure obligations in Australia and the United States

Multinational Corporations establish operations in states with lower legal and ethical standards in areas including the environment, wages, labor standards, human rights, corruption, and company taxation. Corporate law scholars cannot be indifferent to the horrific consequences of these lax standards. From contributing to rapes and violent incidents stemming from trade in conflict minerals in the Congo to the killing of workers due to poor conditions in garment manufacturing units in Bangladesh, multinational corporations exploit conditions in developing countries abroad without disclosing their actions at home. We advance a normative argument to clarify and strengthen the existing model of disclosure-based regulation to hold MNCs accountable. We argue that, since the core expectations held by shareholders of companies are the same whether they are operating within our borders or externally, a harmonization of disclosure obligations imposed by law would be a more flexible and less costly solution. We posit that a broader reading of the disclosure obligations of companies under existing legislation like the Reg. S-K in the United States, the continuous disclosure rules under * Dean and Professor of Law, University of Newcastle Law School. Sandeep Gopalan would like to thank Terrie Troxel, Jack Tatom, Professor Bill Wilhelm, and the Networks Financial Institute at Indiana State University College of Business for their valuable support in conducting research for this article. We are also grateful to Audrey Son, Bassam Khawaja, and the editorial staff of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review for their excellent editorial work. ** Solicitor and doctoral candidate, University of Newcastle Law School. 2 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [46.2:1 the Australian Corporations Act 2001, and listing rules such as those adopted by the Australian Securities Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange would require the disclosure of material corporate practices outside our national borders.

Examining health literacy disparities in the United States: a third look at the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL)

BACKGROUND: In the United States, disparities in health literacy parallel disparities in health outcomes. Our research contributes to how diverse indicators of social inequalities (i.e., objective social class, relational social class, and social resources) contribute to understanding disparities in health literacy.

METHODS: We analyze data on respondents 18 years of age and older (N = 14,592) from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) restricted access data set. A series of weighted Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models estimate the association between respondent's demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), relational social class, social resources and an Item Response Theory (IRT) based health literacy measure.

RESULTS: Our findings are consistent with previous research on the social and SES determinants of health literacy. However, our findings reveal the importance of relational social status for understanding health literacy disparities in the United States. Objective indicators of social status are persistent and robust indicators of health literacy. Measures of relational social status such as civic engagement (i.e., voting, volunteering, and library use) are associated with higher health literacy levels net of objective resources. Social resources including speaking English and marital status are associated with higher health literacy levels.

CONCLUSIONS: Relational indicators of social class are related to health literacy independent of objective social class indicators. Civic literacy (e.g., voting and volunteering) are predictors of health literacy and offer opportunities for health intervention. Our findings support the notion that health literacy is a social construct and suggest the need to develop a theoretically driven conceptual definition of health literacy that includes a civic literacy component.

Maintaining the integrity of public education : a comparative analysis of school autonomy in the United States and Australia

This article takes a critical comparative approach to examining autonomous schooling in the United States and Australia. Amid the market imperatives currently driving education priorities, its focus is on how autonomy can be mobilized in ways that preserve the integrity of public education. Through reference to key debates and research about school autonomy in the United States and Australia, integrity is defined with reference to three values: (1) public ownership (i.e., governance that is responsive to the people it serves), (2) equity and access (i.e., adequate funding and inclusive student admission practices), and (3) public purpose (i.e., prioritizing the moral and social purposes of education; Darling-Hammond and Montgomery 2008). The analysis is mindful of the resonances and differences between the education systems in the United States and Australia and the fluidity and complexity of the notion of autonomous schooling. Against this backdrop, the article illustrates the significance of embedding these values within school autonomy policy in order to preserve the integrity of public education.