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According to D. G. Jud & J. L. Walker (see SA 26:1/78J0960), quality of early schooling does influence student achievement & earnings. However, while they argue that IQ is a function of prior schooling quality, they measure schooling quality by district-wide expenditures while respondents attented high school & IQ by tests taken while respondents attended high school; thus, expenditures do not precede IQ. The more usual procedure would be to take school expenditures & IQ as independent predictors of years of schooling. Further, their data show school expenditures to be inconsequential in determining earnings. In School Quality Really Does Matter, Donald G. Jud & James L. Walker (U of North Carolina, Greensboro & U of Nevada, Reno) argue that current school district expenditures are likely to be similar to both prior year school district expenditures & expenditures in other school districts from which pupils would have transferred. Further, judgments as to a variable's appropriateness cannot be made on the basis of its standardized regression coefficient alone; cost of manipulating variables is also a factor in decision making. Relatively modest increases in school expenditures can produce substantial increases in earnings. 1 Table. W. H. Stoddard

Critiques of modern societies often cite the loss of community as a result of weak connections with local places and changing modes of social interactions. We will argue that both the loss of community and attempts to regain community can be understood as a series of debates progressing from one environment to another. Specifically, community was seen as being lost from its original environment, the local place, typically a village or a residential neighborhood. Then came the claim that community could be regained in the environment of shared space, typically voluntary associations or work groups. The most recent candidate for regaining community is the digital environment of cyberspace. Using existing research, we seek to determine if virtual communities are indeed true communities. Can the virtual community provide two of the core elements—common ties and social interaction—without identification with place? We explore each of these environments as we search for community and the qualities necessary to establish community, finding that virtual communities are spatially liberated, socially ramified, topically fused, and psychologically detached, with a limited liability. In this sense, if we understand community to include the close, emotional, holistic ties of Gemeinschaft, then the virtual community is not true community. That does not necessarily imply, however, that Internet relationships are the antithesis of true community relationships. The Internet may either reduce community, reinforce community, or provide a weak replacement.

The concern with the effects of different types of community power structures has produced two prominent research and conceptualization strategies—the separability and community mobilization models. When both models are evaluated using the same methods and sample, their predictive validity is disappointing. Examination of the relationship of various policy outputs to different types of leadership arrangements suggests a more basic conceptualization, routine versus nonroutine outputs, may be more salient than previous classifications. Because the conceptualization was derived from permanent community sample (PCS) data, it is also evaluated using a different community data set. More empirical support is obtained from the routinization model than from the separability or mobilization models.

The National Longitudinal Surveys of young Fs (N = 5,159 interview Rs, aged 30-44, 1968-1971) provide the data for the construction of causal models of occupational mobility for both black & white workers. The annual models indicate that white Fs bring to the labor market numerous individual advantages over their black counterparts. These advantages of greater human capital are seen as responsible for the continuing racial gap because of the relatively low levels of racial discrimination found in the labor market. Thus, it is concluded that greater potential for closing the racial gap can be found in changing levels of human capital or in separately raising levels of black rewards than in eliminating racial discrimination in the labor market. 6 Tables, 1 Figure. HA.

Objective. The relationship between religion and political participation has not been rigorously investigated, typically employing only basic measures of church attendance or denomination. In this study, we utilize precise measures of various religious behaviors, traditions, and beliefs to examine their influence on political participation.Methods. Using data from the Baylor Religion Survey 2005, we demonstrate that merely including measures of church attendance or denomination camouflages much of religion's influence on political participation.Results. We find that religious beliefs are significantly related to national political participation. For religious activities, identifying with a religious tradition reduces participation, but participation in church activities increases political participation.Conclusion. Different types of religious beliefs influence political participation differently. Although some macro religious beliefs significantly increase macro political behavior, believers in an involved God are less likely to participate politically. Individualistic, micro beliefs have no affect on national politics. Thus, the scope of the religious belief fits with the scope of the political activity, in that more macro concerns translate to national political participation.