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Governing Schools in Culturally Different Communities: Effects of Decentralization in Rural Alaska
Oliver Scott Goldsmith and G. Williamson McDiarmid
Decentralized in 1976, rural Alaska's schools today experience varying levels of lay control. What factors condition lay participation in and influence on school governance? This study examines two factors: the type of governance issue; and the type of community. The hypotheses tested are: professional dominance is greatest on issues considered to be internal to the expertise of professionals; and lay influence will be greatest in small, remote and ethnically homogenous communities. Data used to test these hypotheses are taken from a 1981 survey of rural principals (N = 304) and a 1982 survey of rural teachers (N = 304). Informants provided perceptual data on who participates in and has predominant influence on eleven school governance processes. Interviews conducted with local and district school board members, and both local and central office educational professionals (N = 300) provided qualitative data on the dynamics of school governance processes. Chi-square analysis was used to identify significant differences in levels of participation and influence. The perceptual nature of the data limits the generalizability of the findings. The author found that educational professionals in rural Alaska, like those in the rest of the country, tend to dominate all areas of school governance. Substantial qualitative evidence shows, however, that professionals frame their recommendations to conform to community values and expectations. Other findings were: professionals appear to dominate all issues both those considered to be internal to the expertise of professionals and those considered external, although lay influence was greater on the latter; neither community size nor mean educational level appears to exert an independent effect on lay influence while a high degree of ethnic homogeneity seems to be related to higher levels of lay influence on some school governance processes; and local influence, both lay and professional, appears to be greatest in small, remote, predominantly Native villages. A major implication of these findings is that rural Alaska Natives should beware of efforts to consolidate village schools. Merely having the professionals who teach their children in the community increases the likelihood that local values, needs, and expectations will influence the governance of their children's school.
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Alaska's Economy Since Statehood: The ISER MAP Economic Data Base
Teresa Hull, Brian Reeder, and Oliver Scott Goldsmith
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Allocative Effects of Regulations in the Alaska King Crab Fishery
Gunnar Knapp
In this paper, we have used a simple model to examine possible short-run and long-run allocative effects of regulations in an open-entry fishery. Our model suggests that regulation in an open-entry fishery may affect the distribution of catch between different fleets in a number of ways. Gear restrictions, by directly reducing the efficiency of larger vessels, can increase the share of smaller vessels in total catching power in the short run, and enhance the ability of smaller vessels to compete with larger vessels in the long run. Regulations which separate the fishery, forcing vessels to chose between fishing in different areas, may also affect the distribution of total catch. Examples of these regulations are exclusive area registration requirements and simultaneous scheduling of seasons in different areas. These regulations may affect the distribution of catch between fleets because the relative catching power and relative profitability of boats may be different for individual areas in the fishery than for the fishery as a whole. Data on vessel participation in the Alaska king crab fishery suggest that during the period 1969-1980, regulations in the Alaska king crab fishery benefited small, resident-owned boats. They did so by preventing the large boats which fished in the more productive western fisheries from also fishing in the eastern fisheries where most of the small, resident-owned boats were based, and by restricting gear use in these areas.
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An Analysis of Proposed Exclusive Registration Areas and Pot Limits in the Alaska Tanner Crab Fishery
Gunnar Knapp and Al Didier
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Gulf of Alaska Economic and Demographic Systems Analysis
Gunnar Knapp, Will Nebesky, Teresa Hull, Karen White, Brian Reeder, and Judy Zimicki
This report examines possible impacts of the Gulf of Alaska lease offering, scheduled for October of 1984, upon the population and economics of five communities in southcentral Alaska: Homer, Kenai, Kodiak, Seward, and Yakutat. For each community we provide descriptions of current populations and employment. We then use the Rural Alaska Model ("RAM" model) to project a number of economic and demographic variables for these five communities with and without development of the proposed lease sale area. These projections are sensitive to the numerous assumptions required by the model. In the base case, we project relatively low rates of growth in resident population for Kenai and Kodiak (less than 1.2 percent annually over the period 1981-2010); we project a moderate growth rate for Yakutat (1.9 percent annually over the period , with most growth occurring before 1990); and we project high rates of growth for Homer and Seward (2.3 percent and 3.6 percent) due to increased tourism, fish processing, and shipbuilding. We project relativity minor impacts from development in the lease sale area upon population and employment in Homer, Kenai, Kodiak, and Seward (generally less than 10 percent at maximum). In contrast, we project more substantial relative impacts upon population and employment in Yakutat (up to 46 percent and 82 percent, respectively). Although absolute impacts are similar in Yakutat to those in the other communities, relative impacts are greater because Yakutat is much smaller.
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Worksplace Adaptations Connected to Native Employment in the North
Theodore Lane and Cheryl K. Thomas
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Patterns of Control in Rural Alaska Education
Gerald A. McBeath, Judith Kleinfield, G. Williamson McDiarmid, E. Dean Coon, and Carl. E. Shepro
A 3-year study of decentralization of Alaska schools identified several factors that influenced whether a school, was locally controlled and found patterns of control associated, in important ways with staff and community attitudes toward school. Information was gathered by surveys and interviews conducted in 28 communities randomly selected to represent all rural Alaska schools. Analysis of patterns of control showed 24% of rural Alaska schools with regionalized control, 40% with localized control, and 36% with "mixed" control. Field studies suggested that the attitudes and values of district superintendents were a major factor in decentralization. Localization of control was also dependent on a stable local administrator with positive attitudes toward the community, stable local school boards that represented community interests, and district policy specifying areas of. local authority in school governance. Measures of school climate and satisfaction with school showed significant differences .among the three types of control. Administrators and teachers of regionalized schools were somewhat more proud of student academic achievement and learning than those of localized schools. Parents and community adults were particularly ,satisfied with Native culture and language programs at localized schools. Administrators and teachers at mixed control schools were significantly more likely to have negative expectations of students' ability and achievement than those in any other type of school. (JHZ)
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A Regional Interactive Model of a Frontier Economy: Anchorage and the State of Alaska
Oliver Scott Goldsmith, Matthew D. Berman, and Lee Husky
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The Economic Impacts of Capital Construction Expenditures in Alaska
Oliver Scott Goldsmith and Phillip Rowe
This analysis present "rules of thumb" for estimating the economic impacts of $1 of spending on different types of capital projects in Alaska. It demonstrates that the economic impact varies by project type. The magnitude of economic impact is determined primarily by two factors which determine how much of each dollar spent leaks out of the economy. The first is the proportion of value added (mostly wages and salaries and profits) earned by nonresidents. The second is the proportion of sales to the construction industry which could be made by Alaskan firms but which is, in fact, made by firms outside the state.
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