This report compares the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program data on incidents of non-fatal violent crime to data from Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey to determine if arrest differences by race and ethnicity can be attributed to differences in criminal involvement. It examines offenders' characteristics as reported by victims in the National Crime Victimization Survey and provides information on racial and ethnic disparities beyond an arrestee and population-based comparison. Relative to their share of the U.S. population (60%), white people were underrepresented among offenders in non-fatal violent crimes overall (52%). They accounted for 45% of offenders involved in aggravated assaults and 31% of offenders involved in robbery. They were not underrepresented to a statistically significant degree among offenders involved in rape or sexual assault (56%) or simple assault (59%). Black people were overrepresented among offenders in non-fatal violent crimes overall (29%) relative to their share of the U.S. population (13%). Half of all offenders involved in robbery (51%), a third involved in aggravated assault (34%), and more than a fifth involved in simple assault (23%) and rape or sexual assault (22%) were black. Hispanic offenders were involved in serious non-fatal violent crimes (16%) nearly proportionate to their representation in the U.S. population (18%). Hispanics were underrepresented to a statistically significant degree among offenders involved in simple assault (13%). Among other racial groups, Asians (6% of the U.S. population) were consistently underrepresented among violent offenders, except for their involvement in rape or sexual assault (5%). Between 1% and 2% of offenders involved in robbery, aggravated assault, or simple assault were Asian.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics funded this research to develop and test a new methodology for measuring rape and sexual assault, with the goal of collecting more accurate statistics on the nature and frequency of those crimes. This pilot test provided important findings that have helped to inform the bureau’s ongoing efforts to improve the measurement of rape and sexual assault in the National Crime Victimization Survey. The pilot test surveyed a total of about 5,800 females ages 18 to 49 across five metropolitan statistical areas in 2014 and 2015: Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Phoenix. Through the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, state and local law enforcement agencies convey to the FBI how many rapes are reported each year to law enforcement, including in those five metropolitan statistical areas. A comparison of the pilot test with the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, as well as with the bureau’s National Crime Victimization Survey, reveals notable disparities between the numbers generated by the pilot test and those published by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and National Crime Victimization Survey.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requires states to have statewide accountability systems to help provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps. These systems must meet certain federal requirements, but states have some discretion in how they design them. For example, ESEA requires states to identify low performing schools and student subgroups for support and improvement. This report addresses (1) how states identify and allocate funds for schools identified for support and improvement; and (2) the extent to which states have capacity to support districts’ school improvement activities and how helpful states find the U.S. Department of Education’s technical assistance. The authors found that 27 states use a formula to allocate funds. And in at least 34 states, all school districts that applied for federal funds received them for the 2018-2019 school year. They also found that some states funded specific schools within districts. About one-half of states responding to the survey sought at least one type of technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Education's program office and various initiatives, and almost all of those found it helpful. The authors conducted follow-up interviews with officials from three states, including Florida.

Teachers are never done with learning. Even years into the job, high-quality professional learning opportunities help teachers improve instructional practice. In spring 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused widespread school building closures and disruption of instruction and teacher professional learning. Better understanding of when and how to offer professional learning opportunities so that teachers can maintain, improve, and acquire new skills is a clear area of need. One way that schools and districts can maximize teacher learning is through academic summer programs for students that also offer professional learning opportunities for teachers. Yet, to date, little is known about how summer can best help teachers improve their school-year classroom practices. Do teachers already use the summer months to take part in professional learning? Do teachers find summer professional learning helpful for their work in the classroom during the regular school year? Can teaching students during a summer program provide unique opportunities for professional learning? This study recommends that school districts (1) consider capitalizing on academic summer programs for students as a setting for teacher professional learning; (2) work to develop low-pressure, positive, and supportive summer programs and professional learning environments; and (3) consider summer teaching as a setting to focus on student-centered practices.

Good health is positively related to children’s educational outcomes, but relationships may not be causal. Demonstrating a causal influence would strongly support childhood and adolescent health as important for education policy. The authors applied genetic causal inference methods to assess the causal relationship of common health conditions at age 10 (primary/elementary school) and 13 (mid-secondary/mid-high school) with educational attainment at 16 and school absence at 14–16. Participants were 6,113 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Exposures were symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, depression, asthma, migraines and Body Mass Index (BMI). Genetic liability for these conditions and BMI was indexed by polygenic scores. In non-genetic, multivariate-adjusted models, all health conditions except asthma and migraines were associated with poorer attainment and greater school absence. School absence substantially mediated effects of BMI (39.9% for BMI at 13) and migraines (72.0% at 10), on attainment with more modest mediation for emotional and neurodevelopmental conditions. In genetic models, a unit increase in standardized BMI at 10 predicted a 0.19 standard deviation decrease (95% confidence interval: 0.11, 0.28) in attainment at 16, equivalent to around a 1/3 grade lower in all subjects, and 8.7% more school absence (95% confidence interval:1.8%,16.1%). Associations were similar at 13. Genetic liability for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder predicted lower attainment but not more absence. Triangulation across multiple approaches supports a causal, negative influence on educational outcomes of BMI and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but not of autism spectrum disorder, depression, asthma or migraine. Higher BMI in childhood and adolescence may causally impair educational outcomes.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and each of its major components face the same key drivers of employee engagement—as measured by the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (OPM FEVS)—as the rest of the federal government. Higher scores on the OPM FEVS indicate that an agency has the conditions that lead to higher employee engagement, a component of morale. The department has implemented employee engagement initiatives, including efforts to support DHS employees and their families. Additionally, DHS's major operational components, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration, among others, have developed annual action plans to improve employee engagement. However, DHS has not issued written guidance on action planning and components do not consistently include key elements in their plans, such as outcome-based performance measures. Establishing required action plan elements through written guidance and monitoring the components to ensure they use measures to assess the results of their actions to adjust, reprioritize, and identify new actions to improve employee engagement would better position DHS to make additional gains in this area. In addition, approval from the DHS Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer and component leadership for these plans would help ensure department-wide commitment to improving employee engagement.

Social distancing restrictions and health- and economic-driven demand shifts from COVID-19 shut down many small businesses with especially negative impacts on minority owners. Is there evidence that the unprecedented federal government response to help small businesses – the $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the related $220 billion COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) – which had a stated goal of helping disadvantaged groups, was disbursed evenly to minority communities? In this descriptive research note, the authors provide the first detailed analysis of how the PPP and EIDL funds were disbursed across minority communities in the country. From their analysis of data on the universe of loans from these programs and administrative data on employer firms, the authors generally find a slightly positive relationship between PPP loan receipt per business and the minority share of the population or businesses, although funds flowed to minority communities later than to communities with lower minority shares. Paycheck Protection Program loan amounts, however, are negatively related to the minority share of the population. The EIDL program, in contrast, both in numbers and amounts, was distributed positively to minority communities.

The Creating Moves to Opportunity Demonstration evaluated new services designed to increase the number of families with young children leasing housing in areas with historically high upward income mobility, or high-opportunity areas, in the city of Seattle and King County, Washington. In two phases, King County Housing Authority, Seattle Housing Authority, and a service provider offered three Creating Moves to Opportunity programs to families when they applied to the Housing Choice Voucher program. Navigator staff from the service provider delivered the services, coaching families to obtain their desired housing. Select findings include: (1) Navigators believed that many families found Creating Moves to Opportunity attractive because it improved their chances of leasing in the voucher program and affording costs like security deposits; they also overwhelmingly welcomed the focus on high-opportunity neighborhoods. (2) The navigators initially struggled to serve a minority of families who appeared to expect them to take the lead in their housing search. Adjustments were made during the initial phase of the project to reinforce the program’s emphasis on coaching families to lead housing searches with navigator support. (3) Navigators aimed at influencing rental application screening outcomes for families in engaging landlords. Many families had barriers to approval, but although rental application denials were common, family and staff appeals to landlords could reverse them.

Structural change is taking place in Africa, but with a pattern that is distinct from the historical experience of the industrialized countries and contemporary East Asia: In short, export-led manufacturing is playing a much smaller role in the structural transformation of Africa’s economies. Services—some with quite low productivity—absorb the bulk of African workers leaving agriculture and moving to cities. These changes reflect the impact of technological progress and a changing global marketplace on Africa’s prospects of industrialization. In this paper, the authors consider whether these sectors have the potential to generate the employment required to address high and growing unemployment in South Africa specifically. Ultimately, the findings suggest that industries without smokestacks do have a role to play in generating the numbers and types of jobs required to address youth unemployment in South Africa. Among the sectors considered, tourism and horticulture seem particularly well placed in this regard. However, importantly, challenges remain both from the perspective of the broader economy and individual sectors. South Africa’s overall growth performance must be improved, and sector-specific constraints must be addressed—especially those related to skills—in order for the potential of these sectors to generate employment opportunities to be reached.

Based on nationally representative anthropometric data, the National Center for Health Statistics has published reference tables on the distribution of various body measurements for the U.S. population. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data are the primary source of body measurement information for the U.S. population. These measurements reflect the mean weight, height, length, Body Mass Index (BMI) and various circumferences (head, waist, and mid-upper arm) of U.S. children and adults. Anthropometry is a measure of nutritional or general health status, dietary adequacy, and growth. This report presents anthropometric reference data from the years 2015–2018 for U.S. children and adults. The average height for an 18-year old male is 175.2 centimeters (5.75 feet) and the average height for an 18-year old female is 162.0 centimeters (5.31 feet). The average BMI for an 18 year old male is 24.7 and for an 18-year old female is 26.1.

Research on associations between medical student empathy and demographics, academic background and career interest is limited, lacks representative samples and suffers from single institutional features. This study was designed to fill the gap by examining associations between empathy in patient care, and gender, age, race and ethnicity, academic background and career interest in nationwide, multi‐institutional samples of medical students in the United States and to provide more definitive answers regarding the aforementioned associations, with more confidence in the internal and external validity of the findings. Statistically significant and practically important associations were found between empathy scores and gender (in favor of women), race and ethnicity (in favor of African‐American and Hispanic/Latino/Spanish), academic background (in favor of ‘Social and Behavioral Sciences’ and ‘Arts and Humanities’) and career interest (in favor of ‘People‐Oriented’ and ‘Psychiatry’ specialties).

Staff working in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic which have the potential to adversely affect their mental health. The purpose of this study is to identify the rates of probable mental health disorder in staff working in ICUs in nine English hospitals during June and July 2020. Seven hundred and nine participants completed the surveys comprising 291 (41%) doctors, 344 (49%) nurses, and 74 (10%) other healthcare staff. Over half (59%) reported good well-being; however, 45% met the threshold for probable clinical significance on at least one of the following measures: severe depression (6%), PTSD (40%), severe anxiety (11%) or problem drinking (7%). Thirteen per cent of respondents reported frequent thoughts of being better off dead, or of hurting themselves in the past 2 weeks. Within the sample used in this study, the researchers found that doctors reported better mental health than nurses across a range of measures. In conclusion, the authors found substantial rates of probable mental health disorders, and thoughts of self-harm, amongst ICU staff; these difficulties were especially prevalent in nurses. Whilst further work is needed to better understand the real level of clinical need amongst ICU staff, these results indicate the need for a national strategy to protect the mental health, and decrease the risk of functional impairment, of ICU staff whilst they carry out their essential work during COVID-19.