Nonfatal Injuries And Illnesses Among State And Local Government Workers

The scope of the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses was expanded with the 2008 survey to cover a more complete section of the U.S. economy: state and local government workers. Prior to the publication of the 2008 survey results, data users commonly requested information about industries in the public sector. Estimates covering nearly 18.5 million state and local government workers show that these public sector employees experienced a higher incidence rate of work-related injuries and illnesses than their private industry counterparts.This Spotlight on Statistics compares characteristics of injury and illness cases in state and local government with those in private industry, highlighting incidence rate trends in selected state and local government industries and examining injury and illness rates and cases that occurred in state and local government workplaces in 2011

Exploring the Impact of Teacher Collaboration on Student Learning: A Focus on Writing

In this yearlong case study, six English teachers in an urban high school in Northern California engaged in sustained collaboration focused on developing and enacting strategies to improve the writing skills of their culturally and linguistically diverse freshmen. The study was conducted between August 2018 and June 2019, to determine the connections, if any, between teacher collaboration and student learning. Qualitative data were analyzed from teacher collaboration and observation of classroom practices, focus groups and teacher-created artifacts. Students’ on-demand writing assessments in fall and spring were compared with instructionally supported writing. Student surveys were analyzed in a mixed methods approach. Findings suggest that students’ writing skills improved and students reported increased confidence in writing and other literacy practices. The lessons developed in the collaboration meetings and observed in practice, in tandem with student and teacher self-reports suggest a positive relationship between teacher collaboration and student learning outcomes

Drugs, Alcohol, and Suicide Represent Growing Share of U.S. Mortality

In this brief, author Shannon Monnat identifies trends in mortality rates from drugs, alcohol, and suicide by race and sex for adults aged 25 to 54, from the years 2000 to 2014. She reports that—nationwide--the mortality rate from deaths involving drugs, alcohol, and suicide rose 52 percent from 2000 to 2014. Drug, alcohol, and suicide mortality rates are highest among middle-aged non-Hispanic white males and are growing fastest among non-Hispanic white females. Nearly half of all young white male deaths are caused by drugs, alcohol, or suicide. A little over a quarter of young Hispanic male deaths and 13 percent of young black male deaths are due to these causes. Drugs, alcohol, and suicide are the leading cause of death for young white adults. Monnat concludes that although there are political and economic constraints to implementing comprehensive policies that address the underlying causes of high rates of drug, alcohol, and suicide mortality, such policies are likely to provide the best chance for reducing these deaths

Drug Overdose Rates Are Highest in Places With the Most Economic and Family Distress

In this brief, author Shannon Monnat examines county-level mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pooled for 2006–2015, to gain insight into the U.S. drug overdose problem. She reports that, unlike the news media’s regular portrayal of the drug overdose epidemic being a national crisis, some places have much higher drug mortality rates than others. On average, rates are higher in counties with higher levels of economic distress and family dissolution, and they are lower in counties with a larger per capita presence of religious establishments. These findings hold even when controlling for demographic differences, urban or rural status, and health care supply. She urges policy makers to consider the substantial geographic variation in drug-related mortality rates to ensure targeting the hardest-hit areas. Social and economic environments are important targets for prevention because they affect stress, optimism and hope, health care investment, residents’ knowledge about and access to services, self-efficacy, social support, and opportunities for social interaction. Religious and other civic organizations may play an important role in marshaling social capital to fight the drug epidemic

On the Possibility of Quasi Small-World Nanomaterials

The possibility of materials that are governed by a fixed point related to small world networks is discussed. In particular, large-scale Monte Carlo simulations are performed on Ising ferromagnetic models on two different small-world networks generated from a one-dimensional spin chain. One has the small-world bond strengths independent of the length, and exhibits a finite-temperature phase transition. The other has small-world bonds built from atoms, and although there is no finite-temperature phase transition the system shows a slow power-law change of the effective critical temperature of a finite system as a function of the system size. An outline of a possible synthesis route for quasi small-world nanomaterials is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Brazilian Journal of Physics, conference proceedings for III Brazilian Meeting on Simulational Physics (2003

Corporate Investments in College Readiness and Access

Examines support for college readiness and access initiatives among Fortune 100 companies, best practices in helping disadvantaged students, and case studies. Discusses the importance of higher education to enhancing the U.S. workforce's competitiveness