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How best to educate recent immigrants has become more important over the past 30 years as the number of immigrants in our k-12 schools increases. This article presents a phenomenological study of an urban principal in the US who expanded her school���s Spanish immersion program to respond to the needs of immigrant families. This study provides considerations for other school systems looking to expand their immersion programs and implications for school principals leading the change effort. While this study is based on the needs of recent immigrants in the US, the findings apply to schools in other countries working to successfully educate recent immigrants., Dual Language Research and Practice Journal, Vol. 1 (2017)

National audience; With climate change, a number of regions in the world are forecast to face increasingly frequent and more severe droughts. Water users and policy-makers therefore need to define rules and mechanisms to share scarce water in dry periods, when existing water entitlements cannot be fulfilled by available volumes. This paper examines the scarcity-sharing rules embodied in various water right systems for the agricultural sector and their impact on the adoption of drought- mitigation strategies by farmers. It indicates a methodology to measure the value of early warning systems. It also describes flexibility systems to reduce the total cost of drought: markets to reallocate restrictions between farmers; water banks to reallocate allocations across periods; option contracts and insurance systems to reallocate risks.

Irrigation externalities: pricing and charges by Gavan Dwyer, Robert Douglas, Deb Peterson, Jo Chong and Kate Maddern was released on 14 March 2006. The paper discusses the nature and causes of environmental change related to rural water use, and provides a taxonomy of the many diverse types. It also examines the issues surrounding possible charges on water use for water related externalities. There have been few attempts by water utilities to incorporate externalities into full cost pricing of irrigation water. The aim of this Staff Working Paper was to: examine the extent to which charges imposed by irrigation water utilities could address externalities from irrigation water supply and use; and to develop a framework to identify and characterise changes in environmental conditions from the supply and use of irrigation water that may lead to environmental externalities. The authors found that many factors influence the extent to which charging for water would change water use. These include the volume of water available to irrigators, the extent to which trade can occur, the size of the charge or tax, the price responsiveness for irrigation water and the existing mechanisms to address externalities. A tax on water use may increase economic efficiency where external costs are related only to the level of water use. However, such a tax is an unsuitable instrument if the Government's policy objective is to reduce environmental damage to a predetermined level or to raise a target level of revenue to address the externalities. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.

Precaution : principles and practice in Australian environmental and natural resource management by Deborah Peterson, was presented as the Presidential Address to the 50th Annual Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Conference, Manly, New South Wales, 8 - 10 February 2006. Since the late 1980s, the concept of precaution has been incorporated into numerous international agreements and laws, as well as in domestic statutes and policies in many countries. This paper examines the international emergence of the concept and its application in Australia. Despite rapid growth in adoption of the so-called "precautionary principle," the concept remains highly controversial, and its success in terms of improving environmental and natural resource management has been questioned. This paper argues that implementation guidelines are essential to ensure that precautionary decision making is consistent with good decision making principles, and to avoid unnecessary costs and the potential for perverse outcomes. Economists have an important role in contributing to these guidelines and in developing techniques for incorporating uncertainty into decision making. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government or the Productivity Commission.

The joint conference paper, 'Third-party effects of water trading and potential policy responses' by Anna Heaney (ABARE), Gavan Dwyer (PC), Stephen Beare (ABARE), Deborah Peterson (PC) and Lili Pechey (ABARE), was presented to the American Agricultural Economics Association conference, Providence, Rhode Island, 25 - 27 July 2005. A key feature of water policy reform in Australia has been the separation of water access entitlements from land titles and the establishment of markets for water. However, the separation of water entitlements from land entitlement is not a sufficient condition to ensure that water markets are complete. In the absence of fully defined property rights, water markets will be incomplete and trade has the potential to create third-party effects. However, property rights over natural resources are seldom completely specified, because of the existence of transactions costs. The benefits from eliminating third-party effects need to be sufficient to warrant intervention. The objectives in this paper are to identify key potential third-party effects of water trade under existing property rights structures in Australia, and to examine policy responses to address these effects. The discussion draws on the concepts of exclusiveness and rivalry as key characteristics that determine the applicability of property rights solutions to third-party effects of trade. It is likely that many of the third-party effects of trade discussed in this paper do not warrant policy intervention at the national or state level. In some instances, effects are likely to be relatively minor, although some may be significant at the local level. The costs of addressing some third-party effects may outweigh the benefits. Where there are significant gains from trade, the existence of these third-party effects should not been seen as a reason to impede trade. There are first-best policy instruments to address these effects at an appropriate scale. *ABARE (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics); PC (Productivity Commission) **The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.

The conference paper, 'Integrating rural and urban water markets in south east Australia: Preliminary analysis' by Gavan Dwyer, Paul Loke, David Appels, Susan Stone and Deborah Peterson, was presented to the OECD Workshop on Agriculture and Water: Sustainability, Markets and Policies Adelaide, 14-18 November 2005. The trade of water in Australia is constrained and generally limited to irrigators, with other industries and households excluded. A regional general equilibrium model of the Australian economy (TERM-Water) is used to undertake a preliminary analysis of the effects of expanding the trade of water in south east Australia to include both irrigators and urban users. The focus is on the urban centres of Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne, and the major irrigation districts in the southern Murray-Darling Basin and Gippsland. Losses from a hypothetical reduction in water availability to gross regional product and household demand are reduced when water trade is allowed. The extent to which these losses are reduced depends on the extent to which trade is allowed and the differing water uses in each trading region. The results of this preliminary modelling show that net gains are greatest, and the costs to industries and regions are generally more dissipated, when trade is unconstrained. When regions with relatively low levels of water consumption (such as Adelaide and Canberra) face shortfalls in water availability and trade with regions that use large volumes of water (such as irrigators in the southern Murray-Darling Basin), they have little effect on traded prices and quantities. The opposite is true, however, when large water users experience shortages. These broad patterns hold when all regions experience the same hypothetical reduction in water availability. *The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.

This Productivity Commission staff working paper, 'Modelling Water Trade in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin', was released in November 2004. It examines the likely economic impacts of expanding water trade in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. The paper uses TERM-Water, a bottoms-up regional CGE model of the Australian economy, to examine the regional effects of expanding trade of irrigation water in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. The study finds that water trading dampens the impact of water allocation cuts on gross regional product (GRP). The benefits of introducing trading within irrigation districts are greater than the further benefits of expanding trade to between these regions. Permitting trade of seasonal allocations allows irrigators to reallocate water in reaction to climatic conditions and water availability - and it is this flexibility that enables GRP reductions to be minimised. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect the those of the Productivity Commission.

"Cost Sharing for Biodiversity Conservation: A Conceptual Framework" by Barbara Aretino, Paula Holland, Anna Matysek and Deborah Peterson was released on 11 May 2001, similtaneously with the consultancy report A Duty of Care for the Protection of Biodiversity on Land. The paper discusses the principles for sharing the costs of conservation between individuals, groups and the general community. It illustrates situations in which the different cost sharing principles may be relevant and highlights some issues that arise in determining who should pay for biodiversity conservation. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.

"Creating Markets for Biodiversity: A Case Study of Earth Sanctuaries Ltd" by Barbara Aretino, Paula Holland, Deborah Peterson and Michael Schuele was released on 4 September 2001. The study was carried out at the invitation of Environment Australia and the OECD. This paper examines the activities and operations of the first publicly listed company in Australia with wildlife conservation as its primary goal. This paper is the result of a case study of Earth Sanctuaries Ltd who is directly involved in the conservation of biodiversity. The paper found: the private sector can complement conservation activities by the public sector, both by adding to the resources for biodiversity conservation and by freeing up government resources for other purposes. However, arrangements such as wildlife legislation, land tenure and the limited application of the competitive neutrality framework to wildlife sanctuaries can restrict the scope for private firms to conserve biodiversity. All Australian jurisdictions have legislation restricting trade in, and the property rights to, native species which impacts significantly on private sector conservation activities. There also does not appear to be a consistent and coordinated approach across jurisdictions towards private conservation, amplifying uncertainty for organisations which operate in several jurisdictions. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.

The tax differential caused by variability of taxable income across tax thresholds is estimated for broadacre family farmers using individual taxable income data. Estimates of the tax differential without income averaging are compared with the tax differential under a number of alternative averaging schemes, including the current averaging scheme, modified averaging, block averaging and carry forward tax credits. Only limited evidence is available to indicate the potential tax differential borne by non-primary producers. The availability of such information would assist future analysis of comparative period inequity of farmers and others in the community subject to variable pre-tax incomes.

Tax provisions for land care are often justified as corrections for externalities. It is argued in this paper that land care provisions can be justified independently of an externality correction objective, since land care provisions can be viewed as a partial correction of the failure of the depreciation provisions in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 to recognise that items other than plant and articles devalue through use. This argument only applies to depreciation over the effective life of the asset and not to the provision of accelerated depreciation. There may be a role for Pigouvian subsidies in the case of land degradation to address the externality problem, and some degree of accelerated depreciation may be viewed as an approximation of such. It is argued that direct subsidies may be preferred to either the current or redesigned income tax provisions.

Accelerated depreciation and investment allowances are frequently requested by industry as a means of encouraging investment and promoting the adoption of socially desirable practices by farmers. Examples include the 100 per cent tax deduction for capital expenditure to combat and prevent land degradation (Section 750), and the recently introduced 10 per cent investment allowance for fodder and water storage for livestock, water conveyancing and minimum tillage equipment. Farm level survey data are used to provide evidence of the extent and distribution of benefits to farmers that flow from different rates of depreciation, and from the introduction of a 10 per cent investment allowance. A priori, it may be difficult for the farmer (or farm financial adviser) to determine which depreciation period will provide the largest tax benefit, as the results are dependent on both future taxable incomes, and tax rates.