Browsing by Author "Mackenzie, John"
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Item Analysis of Christina School District’s 2003 DSTP Performance(Department of Food and Resource Economics, 2004-01) Mackenzie, John; Christina School District Board of EducationThis report summarizes the performance of the Christina School District (CSD) on the 2003 Delaware State Testing Program (DSTP). The 2003 test data represent the final set of results attributable to CSD’s former leadership team, which was replaced in July of 2003. The DSTP tests all public school 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th graders in three areas: reading, math and writing. Despite its adequate resources, CSD has generally lagged behind most other school districts in Delaware in student DSTP performance. There is a persistent drop-off in student performance between 3rd and 5th grades, due in part to a significant exodus of highperforming 5th grade students to non-CSD schools, and there is little or no recovery in student performance levels between the 5th and 10th grade tests. The 2003 results identify schools and curriculum areas in particular need of improvement.Item Land Use Issues in Delaware Agriculture(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2002-04) Duke, Joshua M.; Mackenzie, John; Ilvento, Thomas W.Can Delaware’s agriculture coexist (and prosper) in the face of competing land uses over the next twenty years? We believe that maintaining Delaware’s agriculture as a viable land-use alternative depends on the success in addressing three critical challenges. First, will residential, commercial, and industrial land uses be forced to bear the full costs that their land-use decisions visit on Delaware agriculture? Alternatively, will agriculture be fully compensated for its contribution to Delaware’s economy and quality of life? An associated, second challenge, is whether state, county, and local governments will institute incentive-based policies to achieve socially desirable land-use outcomes? It is particularly important that there exist policies to protect and to promote diverse land uses within all three counties. Finally, will spatial land-use patterns evolve, which ensure that agriculture maintains the critical masses necessary for the industry’s economic viability and which insulate producers from the complaints and threats of nonagricultural neighbors? This paper expands on these three challenges and then reviews data on trends in agricultural land use to draw conclusions.Item A Spatial Analysis of the Distributional Effects of Water Quantity Management(Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE., 2001-04) Ehemann, Robert, W.; Duke, Joshua M.; Mackenzie, JohnWater supply managers in growing areas must address increasing demand for an essentially fixed, though highly variable, resource. This worldwide problem inevitably arises as demand increases with population and standards of living (Loucks 1999, Mayor 1997). Currently, 505 million people live in water-scarce or water-stressed conditions, and this number could rise to 3.2 billion people by the year 2025 (Dunphy 2000). Water-stressed locations are not necessarily arid regions of the world. Nonporous materials in urban and suburban areas prevent rainwater from percolating through the soil. Excess water becomes runoff, which erodes riverbeds, prevents groundwater recharge, and exacerbates water supply issues. Spatially, suburban growth distributes the demand for water over a greater area. Water delivery requires increasingly more infrastructure, including holding tanks, reservoirs, treatment plants, and pumping stations. At the very least, suburban growth adds miles of new piping to the system and requires a tremendous amount of water to keep the lines full. This paper investigates the relationship between the spatial distribution of the residential population and residential water demand. Specifically, three water quantity management strategies are compared in times of deficit. Conservation is the root of demand-side management. However, conservation has many interpretations. Chesnutt and Beecher (1998) describe ecological, hydrological, traditional-economic, and resource-economic perspectives on conservation. The ecological perspective emphasizes ethical constraints to avoid the consequences of over consuming in a common property setting. The hydrological perspective focuses on the water cycle and engineering solutions to maintain water supply. Water allocation efficiency through pricing guides the traditional-economic perspective, while the resource-economic perspective merges a sustainability criterion with the traditional perspective. Any attempt to implement water management policy will undoubtedly satisfy those with one perspective and offend others. For instance, objections to the use of price arise from those who see it as insufficiently addressing ethical or supply concerns. This paper attempts to address such concerns by examining the distributional and supply impacts on residents when water scarcity pricing is implemented.