Program on Public Life
April 2010 - Carolina Context: Status vs. Growth, Comparing Strategies for School Improvement
The federal No Child Left Behind program and North Carolina's ABCs program follow different strategies for stimulating progress in educational achievement. Which approach works better? Which students benefit from one approach or the other? Two scholars examine how the two strategies have played out in North Carolina schools, and their findings form the basis of this white paper. The authors are Douglas L. Lauen, assistant professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Helen F. Ladd, the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Duke University. To read their insightful analysis, click here.
The latest issue of DataNet takes an in-depth look at the 2008 general election in North Carolina. In this issue we take a look at exit poll data to paint a picture of how the state electorate has changed over the last few election cycles. In addition, we compare the performances of the presidential and gubernatorial candidates to that of their counterparts in 2004, and preview population changes and how they may impact redistricting after the 2010 Census.
OUR PUBLICATIONS
The Program publishes three newsletter-type publications: NC DataNet on North Carolina Demographic and electoral trends; SouthNow on regional politics and issues; and Carolina Context white papers on North Carolina topics. Current issues can be accessed below and archives of these publications can be accessed on this website.
|
|
June 2009 - Carolina Context: Changing Demographics and the Aging Workforce This issue examines aging patterns across the state in the context of the current economy. An aging population plus tough economic times means that those older workers who have jobs are likely to stay in them longer, and older North Carolinians who need to work are having a tougher time than ever finding it. For older workers, landing a job can be difficult in the best of labor markets, and with the problem currently exacerbated, the authors offer policy options - some already in place in other states - to ease some of the challenges felt by this demographic. To read more click here. |
|---|---|
|
|
October 2009 - Data-Net: 2008 Campaign Spending and district by district turnout, 2010 Redistricting This issue looks back once more to the 2008 elections, and forward to the 2010 redistricting proces. Two aspects of the 2008 election are examined more closely: campaign spending and voter turnout. On the spending side, Democrats continue to dominate. This is true in overall total spending, by each house of the General Assembly, and by top spenders for each party. The voter turnout piece looks at the district level, examining how some members of the General Assembly win with the support of many more voters than other members do, despite districts being basically the same size. Finally, we look at 2010 population projections for each county and how that may affect the number of representatives districts have. Some counties will gain members while others will inevitably lose. Click below to read more. Data-Net No 49: Legislative Electoral Trends
|
|
|
Current Issue: August '07 - Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship Over the years, most students of Southern history have been quite unimpressed with the level of entrepreneurship—defined any which way—present in the region at any point in its history. The “conventional wisdom” is that the South has traditionally lacked the entrepreneurial vigor of the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West, which goes a long way in explaining why the performance of the region’s economy has trailed the performance of other regions for such a long time... |
