The decline in the employment rate for people with disabilities: Bad data, bad health, or bad policy?

A major debate has begun over reports of an unprecedented decline in the employment of working age people with disabilities over the 1990s business cycle. Here we review the literature on what can and cannot be said with current data on this subject and conclude that this decline is not an artifact of the data. We then review the various explanations and evidence for this decline and conclude that it was caused by changes in social policy rather than increases in the severity of the underlying health conditions and impairments of this population. The implication is that significant changes in public policy are needed to more effectively integrate working age people with disabilities into employment. We identify and discuss the most promising directions for public policy in this area

Employing those not expected to work: The stunning changes in the employment of single mothers and people with disabilities in the United States in the 1990s

This report compares the dramatic changes in the level of government benefits provided to single mothers and people with disabilities, especially in the 1990s. While welfare reforms and economic growth during the 1990s led to a dramatic increase in the employment of single women with children, the employment rate of individuals with disabilities dramatically declined, and continued to decline, in spite of peak periods of economic growth over the business cycle

Contrasting the Employment of Single Mothers and People with Disabilities

The transition of single women with children off the welfare rolls and into employment (see Figures 1 and 2) in the 1990s has been described as “stunning” by leading policy researchers (see, for instance, Blank 2002). The authors in The Decline in Employment of People with Disabilities: A Policy Puzzle (Stapleton and Burkhauser 2003) document and analyze an equally stunning transition of working-age people with disabilities out of the workforce and onto disability income support programs (see Figures 1 and 2), despite the upsurge in government rhetoric proclaiming increased employment and economic independence as a primary policy goal. Employment and program participation trends for both populations departed sharply from trends in the prior decade

Efficient computation of aerodynamic influence coefficients for aeroelastic analysis on a transputer network

Aeroelastic analysis is multi-disciplinary and computationally expensive. Hence, it can greatly benefit from parallel processing. As part of an effort to develop an aeroelastic capability on a distributed memory transputer network, a parallel algorithm for the computation of aerodynamic influence coefficients is implemented on a network of 32 transputers. The aerodynamic influence coefficients are calculated using a 3-D unsteady aerodynamic model and a parallel discretization. Efficiencies up to 85 percent were demonstrated using 32 processors. The effect of subtask ordering, problem size, and network topology are presented. A comparison to results on a shared memory computer indicates that higher speedup is achieved on the distributed memory system

Concurrent processing adaptation of aeroplastic analysis of propfans

Discussed here is a study involving the adaptation of an advanced aeroelastic analysis program to run concurrently on a shared memory multiple processor computer. The program uses a three-dimensional compressible unsteady aerodynamic model and blade normal modes to calculate aeroelastic stability and response of propfan blades. The identification of the computational parallelism within the sequential code and the scheduling of the concurrent subtasks to minimize processor idle time are discussed. Processor idle time in the calculation of the unsteady aerodynamic coefficients was reduced by the simple strategy of appropriately ordering the computations. Speedup and efficiency results are presented for the calculation of the matched flutter point of an experimental propfan model. The results show that efficiencies above 70 percent can be obtained using the present implementation with 7 processors. The parallel computational strategy described here is also applicable to other aeroelastic analysis procedures based on panel methods

Overcoming health systems barriers to successful malaria treatment.

The success of malaria control programmes is recognised to be handicapped by the capacity of the health system to deliver interventions such as first-line treatment at optimal coverage and quality. Traditional approaches to strengthening the health system such as staff training have had a less sustained impact than hoped. However, novel strategies including the use of mobile phones to ease stockouts, task-shifting to community health workers, and inclusion of the informal sector appear more promising. As global health funding slows, it is critical to better understand how to deliver a proven intervention most effectively through the existing system

High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized test scores are the indicator used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement. Each state is responsible for constructing an accountability system, attaching consequences -- or stakes -- for student performance. The theory of action implied by this accountability program is that the pressure of high-stakes testing will increase student achievement. But this study finds that pressure created by high-stakes testing has had almost no important influence on student academic performance