Topics: Problems with charter schools, advantages of specialized schools, misuses of standardized tests in school research, common sense and sociological explanation, problems with using summary measures like means and medians, the future of sociology of education, cultural change in 1950s Japan (a short story)
Note: To view my paper on Realtor Fraud and the real estate ethics-hearing charade, visit my website: http://www.socialissues.us
Ronald G Corwin, Professor Emeritus
Department of Sociology, Ohio State University
I am a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ohio State University, where I was employed most of my career in research and teaching. I have authored or co-authored nearly 100 publications, including 14 books and dozens of research articles in professional journals. My specialty is social organization, and most of my work has focused on education.
After early retirement from the university, I worked for several years as a research administrator for an independent research firm in California. Since retiring from those positions, I have had time to reflect and review literature on a variety of topics. My most recent book, on school choice, was published by Praeger in 2005 and republished in paperback in 2007 by Scarecrow Press (Rowman and Littlefield).
For further information on my background, please click on the ”My Resume” button.
This site, www.professorronaldgcorwin.com, includes my thoughts on a variety of academic topics, which are briefly identified on the navigation buttons (upper left).
Charter School Hoax. Why school choice as it stands is a hoax and independence is a blind alley. Charter schools need to be reined in to make them work for the school districts that most children attend. Charters can be more useful and focused if they are operated by school districts as part of a cooperative, symbiotic network, rather than under the existing cloak of independence, which creates more problems than it solves.
Specialized Schools. Inadequacies of the common school model that dominates schools, the advantages of specialized schools, types of specialized schools, and how they can be effective within an organizational network.
Standardized Tests. Why Standardized Achievement test schools are inappropriate and misleading measures of the success of schools, school districts, and educational programs, and their adverse effects on education.
Sociological Explanations. Differences between common sense and sociological explanations, and why explanations of social events must focus on organizations and not on individual traits or motivations.
Summary Measures: Why means and medians that are commonly published to summarize complex statistics are misleading and why reporting distributions provides more accurate and useful information.
Sociology of Education. Will sociology of education ever grow up? I maintain that depends on the willingness of those of us in this room to recognize and, more important, to apply some basic lessons that we should have learned during the past century.
Short Story: Japan. A Short Story Titled “Tomorrow’s Fruit” about a young Japanese woman struggling with changing mores in the 1950s--written while I was serving in Japan with the U.S. Army, and published in the Japanese newspaper, The Mainichi, in 1954.
(1) The Effects of Immigration on the Social Structure.
Contradictory claims about the incendiary topic of immigration prompted me to examine available sources with an open mind, in search of the near truth. I review evidence relating to the effects of immigration on this nation’ social structure and conclude that the huge influx of immigrants from a relatively few countries creates a critical mass, which in turn promotes linguistic and cultural isolation. Immigration is having serious adverse affects on levels of poverty and education, racial segregation, crime rates, welfare costs, and public school enrollments. As long as infinite streams of poorly educated Mexican immigrants living in poverty continue to replace the older generations, there will remain large clusters of segregated, low-income immigrants living and working in ways that remain marginal to the U.S. economy and the society. In effect, the nation has a new underclass. It can only deepen the class divide and hurt black citizens and other minorities who are already at the bottom.
(2) Crime Rates in a Rapidly Urbanizing Area
This paper summarizes the numbers of crimes and crime rates per 1,000 residents in two small cities located in the Inland Empire area of California, Banning (2008 population 34,268) and Beaumont (2008 population 28,816). These communities are of interest not only in themselves but also because as growing cities, they illustrate some of the prospects and challenges that small cities experience with rapid urbanization. Since the 2000 Census, Beaumont has grown over 177%. In 2006, it was the fastest growing city in the state of California, growing 21% that year, and then another 11% in 2007 (making it the second fastest growing city in the state that year). Between 2001 and 2007 the area population in the area grew 68%, and the total number of crimes nearly kept pace, swelling 53%. Crimes per 1,000 residents steadily declined in Beaumont during the period and rose sharply in Banning.
In 2008, the risk that a Banning resident would become a victim of property crime was reatively low compared to 14 other near-by cities selected for comparison. Banning also had the lowest larceny rate. But the likelihood of being assaulted there was higher there than in the cities. Its violent crime rate (while below six of the cities) matched Moreno Valley, Hemet, and Victorville, and was well above Redlands, Fullerton, Brea, Beaumont, and Palm Desert. Residents of Banning were four times as likely to be assaulted as residents of Beaumont, Palm Desert, Brea, Redlands, and Fullerton. And, they were at twice the risk as residents of Moreno Valley. Only San Bernardino (the Inland area's most violent city) and Barstow (another violent city) reported more assaults per resident. Burglaries also were relatively high there--double Beaumont, Brea, and Los Angeles, and 30% to 40% higher than Fullerton, Long Beach, Redlands, and Riverside. Beaumont had the second-lowest rate of burglary rate of the cities included in the analysis.
(3) Sociological Issues Relating to Mold
There are abundant reasons for believing that exposure to some types of mold is positively linked to human disease, even though the causal chains cannot be fully explained. Yet, mold advocates and other skeptics—among them some prominent scientists and health officials, as well as steadfast special interests—continue to question that there is a scientifically proven link between mold and illness, or at least serious illness, in otherwise healthy people. In this paper, you will find a story about scientific uncertainty and contests among researchers for methodological dominance. You will discern conflicts of interest, bias, political pressures, and wrangling over the validity of different kinds of legal proof. Then you will see that the outcomes of law suits have been random and learn about a recent backlash against mold victims. And finally, you will discover that the biggest allergic reaction of all is coming from business interests standing to lose billions of dollars from mold suits.
(4) The Real Estate Ethics-Hearing Charade
This article describes the Real Estate Ethics Hearing process as practiced in California. The complaint process is shown to be a thinly disguised vehicle to cover up the mistakes of errant realtors and silence their critics. With the possible exception of realtors who have been suspended or expelled from an association, the public has no way to identify realtors who have been the subject of complaints—even realtors who have been reprimanded or fined. Once they have been let off by their comrades, all evidence of the complaint is expunged from the record. Moreover, except in extreme cases involving suspension or expulsion, all findings, recommendations and decisions related to a disciplinary hearing are hidden behind confidential agreements. This code of secrecy extends to all parties to the proceedings. Thus unless a wrong-doer has been suspended or expelled, he or she actually stands to benefit from the disciplinary process, since it serves to silence complainants who otherwise would remain free to express their grievances.
I am a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Ohio State University, where I was employed most of my career in research and teaching. I have authored or co-authored nearly 100 publications, including 14 books and dozens of research articles in professional journals. My specialty is social organization, and most of my work has focused on education.
