Obama, Jesus and Martin Luther King Top List of America’s “Heroes”

When "The Harris Poll" asked a cross-section of adult Americans to say whom they admire enough to call their heroes, President Barack Obama was mentioned most often, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King. Others in the top ten, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.

These heroes were named spontaneously. Those surveyed were not shown or read a list of people to choose from. The Harris Poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,634 U.S. adults (aged 18 and over) by Harris Interactive® between January 12 and 19,
2009.

Source: Harris Interactive

Download Harris Poll detailed information (PDF)

Curbing Medicare Advantage overpayments could benefit millions of low-income and minority Americans

From Online Summary:

More than 25 million Americans belonging to minority groups lack health coverage; minorities constitute 34 percent of the nation’s population but nearly 55 percent of the uninsured. Enactment of comprehensive health reform that achieves universal coverage would therefore disproportionately benefit minorities.

One way to help finance universal coverage, as President Obama has noted, would be to curb excessive payments to the private insurance companies that serve some Medicare beneficiaries through the Medicare Advantage program. Although private insurers were brought into Medicare to reduce costs, Medicare pays them an average of $1,000 more per beneficiary per year than it costs to treat the same beneficiaries through traditional Medicare. These overpayments threaten Medicare’s finances and increase the premiums paid by participants in traditional Medicare. As a result, Congress’ official expert advisory body on Medicare payment policy, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, has recommended “leveling the playing field” and paying private plans the same amounts as traditional Medicare.

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary and key findings

Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents

From Online Overview:
An investment in postsecondary education has been repeatedly shown to pay high monetary and nonmonetary dividends to students and society at large. Despite such benefits, research shows that close to half of all students who matriculate at a community college drop out before graduating and do not complete a degree at any other college or university within a six-year time frame. The reasons for this are many, ranging from weak academic preparation to difficulties balancing work, family, and school obligations.

To study the effect of supplemental financial aid with an incentive component to encourage academic success and persistence, two New Orleans-area colleges operated a performance-based scholarship program with counseling in 2004-2005. The program was targeted to low-income parents as part of MDRC’s multisite Opening Doors demonstration. With funding from the Louisiana Department of Social Services and the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the colleges offered students $1,000 for each of two semesters ($2,000 total) — distributed in three separate payments each semester — if they met two conditions: They had to enroll in college at least half time and they had to maintain an average grade of “C” or better. Students did not have to be welfare recipients, and the scholarships were paid in addition to federal Pell Grants. Program counselors monitored whether students met benchmarks, and physically handed the students their checks at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester.

Source: MDRC

Download full pdf report | Download pdf executive summary | Link to online overview

Impact Evaluation of Teacher Preparation Models

From website summary:
Every year, thousands of new teachers pass through hundreds of different teacher preparation programs and are hired to teach in the nation's schools. In recent years, "alternative teacher certification" programs have expanded rapidly, offering an increasingly popular route into teaching that differs from that offered by traditional certification programs. Despite the expansion of these new routes into teaching, there exists little research to provide guidance as to the effectiveness of these diverse teacher training strategies.

Mathematica's evaluation of teacher preparation models examined the efficacy of different teacher preparation methods in contributing to students' academic achievement. The study focused on the performance of teachers from two alternative models of teacher preparation—one model with less selective recruiting and substantial coursework requirements, and the other with less selective recruiting and minimal coursework requirements—compared with traditionally prepared teachers teaching in the same schools and grades. Students were randomly assigned to teachers prior to the start of the school year. Nonexperimental methods were used to separate the effects of different preparation strategies from the effects of other teacher characteristics.

The study, conducted for the Institute of Education Sciences, was implemented in 68 schools throughout the country during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. We administered standardized tests to all students in the sample, collected school records data and teacher test scores, conducted classroom observations, and administered a teacher survey. We also conducted interviews with teacher preparation program directors and school principals.

Source: Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

Download full pdf report | Download pdf executive summary | Link to MPR

Measuring Up: The Problem of Grade Inflation and What Trustees Can Do

From the Press release: "The guide brings together and assesses various strategies that universities across the country have adopted to address grade inflation. It concludes that the first step is to initiate a vigorous campus-wide conversation on the subject, as the University of Colorado recently did with success."

Source: American Council of Trustees and Alumni

Download pdf of "Measuring Up: The Problem of Grade Inflation and What Trustees Can Do"

2009 State of the State Speeches

Most governors unveil their priorities in “state of the state addresses” or budget speeches presented to the legislatures early in the year.

Stateline.org provides a list of this year's speeches and links to those that have occurred.

Link to Stateline.org State of the State Speeches page.

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln

In 1953, the Abraham Lincoln Association published The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, a multi-volume set of Lincoln's correspondence, speeches, and other writings. Roy P. Basler and his editorial staff, with the continued support of the association, spent five years transcribing and annotating Lincoln's papers. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln represented the first major scholarly effort to collect and publish the complete writings of Abraham Lincoln, and the edition has remained an invaluable resource to Lincoln scholars. Through the efforts of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the edition is now available in electronic form. Source: University of Michigan

Link to "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln"

The Task of the Latino/a Archivist: On Archiving Identity and Community

Taking into account the very complexity and contestability of the terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” to identify its subject matter, this paper draws on contemporary research on archives and identity, philosophy, Latino Studies, and efforts to chronicle the history of Latinos in New York State to ask how the Latino/a archivist can document Latino groups in the United States without restricting the multifaceted ways in which they construct and negotiate their identities. Is the establishment of a historical narrative for various Latino groups necessarily indicative of a codification of identity? Can the stuff of communal history be deployed in such a way as to encourage difference and not essential notions of what it meant and means to be “Latino” and/or “Hispanic” in the United States? These are some of the questions this paper explores in the hopes of teasing out the tensions that exist between historical validity and essentialism, historical re-inscription and foreclosure. Source: InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies. Vol. 5, Issue 1, Article 3.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/gseis/interactions/vol5/iss1/art3

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Survey: Most Feel a Personal Stake in Tracking Economic News

From the Online Summary:
Americans continue to follow news about the economic crisis closely because they feel it is directly relevant to their lives. More than eight-in-ten (85%) say even when the economic news is bad they feel better knowing what’s going on, while 77% say they need to stay on top of economic news because it matters in the financial decisions they make.

At the same time, close to half (46%) of the public says they often feel they don’t have enough background information to follow economic news stories, according to the Pew Research Center’s weekly News Interest Index survey conducted Feb. 13-16. As the crisis takes a heavy toll on jobs, homes, retirement savings and entire communities, 49% also say the economic news seems to be the same all the time with nothing ever really changing; another 44% say they find themselves looking for lighter news as a diversion from negative economic reports.

But relatively few are turning off economic news because it is too disheartening. Fewer than three-in-ten (28%) say they often feel the news is so depressing, they would rather not hear about it.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf report | Download Topline Questionnaire | Link to online summary

Tobacco Industry Interference with Tobacco Control World Health Organization

Partial Abstract:
A large body of evidence demonstrates that tobacco companies use a wide range of tactics to interfere with tobacco control. Such strategies include direct and indirect political lobbying and campaign contributions, financing of research, attempting to affect the course of regulatory and policy machinery and engaging in social responsibility initiatives as part of public relations campaigns.

Although more and more is known about tobacco industry tactics, a systematic, comprehensive guide is needed to assist regulators and policy-makers in combating those practices. Guidelines and recommendations exist for countering and monitoring industry marketing, and recommendations have been issued to refuse industry funding of certain activities, but no broad policy has been published to assist government officials, policy-makers and nongovernmental organizations in their interactions with the tobacco industry.

Source: World Health Organization via Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

Download full pdf report | Link to full Abstract online

Building Knowledge About Successful Prisoner Reentry Strategies

"There is broad agreement on the need to reduce recidivism among the 700,000 people who are released from prison each year, and many local, state, and federal agencies have mounted ambitious reentry initiatives. Unfortunately, there is almost no hard evidence about which reentry approaches, if any, are effective. Without a body of reliable research showing that the new strategies are making a difference, public support for reentry programming may dissipate. While a handful of rigorous studies are underway — and some promising results are starting to emerge — a much larger, more systematic series of evaluations is needed." Source: MDRC

Link to MDRC online policy recommendation

Unemployment Rises Sharply Among Latino Immigrants in 2008

From summary:

The current recession is having an especially severe impact on employment prospects for immigrant Hispanics, according to an analysis of the latest Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The unemployment rate for foreign-born Hispanics increased from 5.1% to 8.0%, or by 2.9 percentage points, from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. During this same time period, the unemployment rate for all persons in the labor market increased from 4.6% to 6.6%, or by 2.0 percentage points.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering is a report that provides information about the participation of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering education and employment. Information on the site is organized by topic and group. Links to additional data sources and reports are provided.

Source: National Science Foundation

Download updated pdf report | Link to site with additional data

Giving by Foundations in the National Capital Region: How Much Stays Local?

From Press Release:

Foundations in the Washington metropolitan area granted nearly $186 million in 2006 to locally-focused organizations in Greater Washington, according to Giving by Foundations in the National Capital Region, a report released today by the Foundation Center, with support from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation.

This study — the first ever to examine locally-focused giving within a specific metropolitan area anywhere in the United States — analyzes the giving of 1,191 foundations based in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and northern Virginia to determine how much of their grantmaking was targeted to Greater Washington organizations with a predominantly local focus. The report also examines giving by the 26 largest foundations in the sample to identify the subject areas in which these grants were given.

Source: Foundation Center

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The Global Gender Gap Report 2008

Norway (1) leads the world in closing the gender gap between men and women, according to the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008. Three other Nordic countries – Finland (2), Sweden (3) and Iceland (4) – also top the Report’s Gender Gap Index. Previously higher ranking countries such as Germany (11), United Kingdom (13) and Spain (17) slipped down the Index but stayed in the top 20, while Netherlands (9), Latvia (10), Sri Lanka (12) and France (15) made significant gains. Featuring a total of 130 countries, this year’s Report provides an insight into the gaps between women and men in over 92% of the world’s population. Source: World Economic Forum

Download full pdf report | Link to World Economic Forum Site to download excel data and view video interviews with authors

Ernst & Young Report: Global megatrends 2009

Purpose of Global megatrends 2009

This report presents an Ernst & Young perspective of some of the most significant trends we see today in the marketplace. We offer a snapshot of the main themes and concepts within each trend: a concise view to raise questions and spark new ideas, rather than a comprehensive set of answers.

These megatrends have been written at a time of particular flux: we are in the midst of a financial crisis and there is a considerable amount of uncertainty about the future. Despite this unstable environment, we still need to think about the trends that were unfolding before the crisis — questioning how they will evolve and what new directions they might follow — as well as considering new trends that are emerging

Download full pdf report | Link to Global Megatrends site (Ernst & Young)

Finance and Labor: Perspectives on Risk, Inequality, and Democracy

ABSTRACT:

We live in an era of financialization. Since 1980, capital markets have expanded around the world; capital shuttles the global instantaneously. Shareholder concerns drive executive decision making and compensation, while the fluctuations of stock markets are a source of public anxiety. So are the financial scandals that have regularly occurred in recent years: junk bonds in the 1980s; lax accounting and stock manipulation in the early 2000s; and debt securitization today. We also live in an era of rising income inequality and employment risk. The gaps between top and bottom incomes and between top and middle incomes have widened since 1980. Greater risk takes various forms, such as wage and employment volatility and the shift from employers to employees of responsibility for pensions and, in the United States, for health insurance. There is an enormous literature on financial development and another on inequality. But relatively few studies consider the intersection of these phenomena. Standard explanations for rising inequality--skill-biased technological change and trade--account for only 30% of the variation in aggregate inequality. What else matters? We argue here that an omitted factor is financial development. This study explores the relationship between financial markets and labor markets along three dimensions: contemporary, historical, and comparative. For the world’s industrialized nations, we find that financial development waxes and wanes in line with top income shares. Since 1980, however, there have been national divergences between financial development--defined here as the economic prominence of equity and credit markets--and inequality. In the U.S. and U.K., there remains a strong positive correlation but in other parts of Europe and in Japan the relationship is weaker.

Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Paper Jacoby01.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclairle/Jacoby01

Download full pdf publication | Link to eScholarship Repository

Patents Are Property: A Fundamental But Important Concept

ABSTRACT:
Patents have historically been viewed as property and patent owners have traditionally been entitled to property remedies for patent infringement. This essay argues that a shift to liability remedies in lieu of property remedies for patent infringement is unjustified despite the 2006 Supreme Court decision in eBay v. MercExchange.

Suffolk University Law School. Suffolk University Law School Faculty Publications. Paper 54.
http://lsr.nellco.org/suffolk/fp/papers/54

Download full pdf report | Link to online abstract

Is an Alternative Globalization Possible?

Abstract:

Building on Polanyi’s concept of the “double-movement” through which society defends itself against domination by the self-regulating market, this article sets out some key organizational and ideological hurdles that the contemporary “movement of movements” must surmount to challenge the hegemony of neo-liberal globalization. After outlining neo-liberalism’s failures, it makes an argument for the possibility of “counter-hegemonic globalization,” defined as a globally organized project of transformation aimed at replacing the dominant (hegemonic) global regime with one that maximizes democratic political control and makes the equitable development of human capabilities and environmental stewardship its priorities.

Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Paper Evans03.

Download full pdf report | Link to online abstract

Diaspora without Homeland: Being Korean in Japan

"More than one-half million people of Korean descent reside in Japan today—the largest ethnic minority in a country often assumed to be homogeneous. This timely, interdisciplinary volume blends original empirical research with the vibrant field of diaspora studies to understand the complicated history, identity, and status of the Korean minority in Japan. An international group of scholars explores commonalities and contradictions in the Korean diasporic experience, touching on such issues as citizenship and belonging, the personal and the political, and homeland and hostland. Contributors: Mark E. Caprio, Erin Aeran Chung, Chikako Kashiwazaki, Ichiro Kuraishi, John Lie, Youngmi Lim, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Sonia Ryang, Yu Jia" Source: University of California Press / UC Global, Area, and International Archive, vol. #8, 2009. http://repositories.cdlib.org/gaia/gaia_books/8/1

Download full pdf of publication | Link to eScholarship Repository