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IN THIS ISSUE:

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Patterns of Juvenile Court Referrals of Youth Born in 2000

Intimate Partner Abuse Solution Programs

New Programs For and Approaches To Justice System Challenges


EDUCATION

Effects of a District-Managed Restart Strategy for Low-Performing Schools in Texas

Skills Needs in Selected Occupations Over the Next 5-10 Years

Exploring Co-requisite Developmental Education Models in the Lone Star State: A First Report on Student Success and Co-Requisite Implementation


GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

2019 Data Show Baby Boomers Nearly 9 Times Wealthier Than Millennials

Artificial Intelligence for Good: Research Insights From Financial Services

Wildfire Resilience Workshop Summary 4: Post-Fire Restoration and Resilience


HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES

United States Life Tables, 2020

Fetal Mortality: United States, 2020

U.S. Domestic Response to the 2022 Monkeypox Outbreak



August 12, 2022

Criminal_Justice
CRIMINAL JUSTICE

This bulletin describes the official juvenile court referral histories of more than 160,000 youth born in 2000 from 903 selected United States counties. Using data from the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, this bulletin focuses on the demographic and case processing characteristics of youth referred to juvenile court and the proportion of the cohort that was referred to juvenile court more than once, as well as histories defined as serious, violent, and chronic. More than 60% of youth in the cohort did not return to juvenile court after their first referral. A small percentage of youth (7%) were initially referred to juvenile court for a violent crime. Additionally, the data indicates that the likelihood of referrals varied by demographics. Males are still more likely to return to juvenile court than their female peers. Black and American Indian youth were most likely to be referred more than once.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs

Intimate partner abuse solution (IPAS) programs were first developed in the 1970s and have historically been referred to as batterer intervention programs. Although these programs are now known by different labels and apply different approaches and philosophies, collectively they are designed to prevent intimate partner violence by holding perpetrators accountable for their behavior and prioritizing safety and justice for victims. Despite widespread adoption and use of IPAS programs by court systems and communities around the United States, there remains inconsistent and limited information on their effectiveness. For this report, the authors convened a panel of experts to better understand the needs of these programs. The panel identified 33 high-priority needs, which cover four major areas: content covered in current IPAS programs; program implementation; connections between IPAS programs and criminal justice and community entities; and challenges in conducting rigorous research on IPAS programs. The report found that state regulations around IPAS programs are often very prescriptive, which prevents states from altering or shifting their approaches. However, the report also found there is considerable variation in the logistics of how IPAS programs are run and limited research on how logistical factors affect participation. The report makes recommendations including developing evidence-informed federal guidance on shifting state standards around IPAS programs and conducting research on the impacts of program logistics on participation, including best practices in incorporating virtual options into in-person programs.

Source: RAND Corporation

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) is a data-driven approach to managing criminal justice populations and investing savings in recidivism reduction strategies and improved public safety funded by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance and Pew Charitable Trusts. Through JRI, states have made a range of changes to their justice systems, and many states have decreased their prison populations or kept them below projected levels. This report discusses four states’ programs and approaches that are now critical components of their justice systems and represent the diverse challenges and solutions of states that have participated in JRI. The programs and approaches discussed in the report include: Arkansas’s crisis stabilization units and crisis intervention training; Louisiana’s gender-responsive approach to women’s incarceration and supervision; Oregon’s Improving People's Access to Community-Based Treatment, Supports, and Services (IMPACTS) program; and Pennsylvania’s performance-based contracting approach to community corrections. The report outlines each program or approach’s implementation process, changes, and/or challenges since its inception, and perceived or documented outcomes. Additionally, the report presents key takeaways and from each program or approach.

Source: Urban Institute

Education
EDUCATION

The Texas Education Agency offers grants for districts to implement school turnaround strategies at low-performing schools. Districts that receive these grants can implement a school turnaround strategy (referred to as a district-managed restart strategy) that includes replacing principals and teachers at schools that the district identifies as struggling and needing additional support. From 2015-16 to 2018-19, 29 schools across four urban and suburban districts in Texas implemented a district-managed restart strategy in three cohorts: one district began in 2015-16, another in 2017-18, and two in 2018-19. This study used longitudinal administrative data and interviews with district and school leaders to examine implementation of the restart strategy and its effects on teacher and principal mobility, student achievement, and student attendance. State leaders can use the results of this study to make decisions about continuing to offer grants for districts to implement the district-managed restart strategy in their low-performing schools. Key findings include that 1) nearly 80% of the teachers at schools in the year before implementation of the restart strategy left before the beginning of the restart school year; 2) educators who arrived at restart schools were more likely to have more than three years of experience and to have an advanced degree than those who left or stayed; 3) student achievement and attendance improved after schools implemented the restart strategy; 4) nearly all restart schools met accountability standards within the first three years of implementation; and 5) interviews with district and school leaders suggested that recruiting high-performing teachers to relocate to restart schools was time consuming and that the grant-funded salary stipend might not have been a large enough incentive.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences

This study, commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Department for Education, finds that skills related to knowledge and relevant technologies are required in the next 5–10 years. Digital literacy is already an essential requirement, with degrees of digital skills required in different sectors and occupations. However, across roles, skills around understanding of data will only increase in importance as responsibilities for data handling and security are shared across organizations. Some specific technical skills are needed in health and trades such as those related to the ability to adapt clinical skills to developments in health and care, knowledge of the technical basis of work and understanding of relevant standards and legislation. Expected changes in the occupations and emerging skills point to: (i) skills needs in using specific new hardware; (ii) data science skills; (iii) the need to apply skills to future-related goals. Participants suggested that the promotion of multiple routes into occupations, along with clear definitions of skills and qualifications, should be improved. People and communication skills are and will continue to be needed, including to complement the use of digital skills and communicate about these with colleagues and the public. Teamwork skills are and will be key in addressing complex needs in coordinated way. Skills around planning and communicating long-term strategy, exploiting opportunities, and managing risks were seen as especially important for managers and health professionals.

Source: RAND Corporation

A growing number of institutions and state systems of higher education are embracing co-requisite developmental education (DE) models whereby students take developmental (or remedial) courses in the same semester as the associated introductory college-level English or math course. This model abandons the traditional notion that students must complete all DE courses before taking college-level courses and a growing number of studies have found that co-requisite models have been associated with large gains of 10 percentage points or more in the likelihood of successfully completing gateway courses in math or English in the first year relative to traditional DE models. Texas permits individual institutions to decide how to offer co-requisite course option in terms of both structure and intensity. In terms of structure, institutions can decide to offer the course concurrently or paired with the associated introductory college-level course, sequentially where students complete the DE portion before the college-level portion (but both within the same semester), or via a non-course competency based option that can take on the form of lab hours, tutoring, or other formats. In terms of intensity, institutions can also decide how many credits the courses bear, ranging from 0 to more than 4 credit hours. In this report, the authors present findings from a year-long study that investigated (1) how student success in integrated reading and writing/ English and math is related to the structure and intensity of co-requisite course options and (2) the decisions institutional leaders and instructors made when deciding which options to offer. The main findings include: 1) students enrolled in sequential courses tended to be more likely to pass the integrated reading and writing course (77.71%) compared to students in concurrent (69.22%) and non-course competency based option courses (57.67%); 2) the likelihood of passing the integrated reading and writing course was similar for all students regardless of the number of credits of the integrated reading and writing course; 3) the likelihood of passing DE math was the greatest for students in sequential co-requisites, with a predicted probability of passing DE math of 82.10% for sequential co-requisites relative to 63.29% for non-course competency based option courses and 62.03% for concurrent co-requisites; and 4) there are few differences in the likelihood of passing a gateway math course by co-requisite structure or intensity.

Source: Florida State University, Center for Postsecondary Success

Government Operations
GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Wealth is the value of assets owned minus the liabilities (debts) owed. As described in a previous report on household wealth in 2017, this new U.S. Census Bureau report and detailed tables on household wealth in 2019 show similarly wide variations across demographic and socioeconomic groups, but also detail generational wealth differences for the first time. For example, it shows that baby boomers are nearly nine times wealthier than millennials. Just two assets — home equity and retirement accounts — accounted for 65.2% of households’ wealth in 2019. Households that owned their home had a median wealth of $305,000, substantially larger than those that rented ($4,084). Not surprisingly, Generation Z, the youngest generation with adult members (born 1997 to 2013), had less wealth than the oldest and wealthiest Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945): median wealth of $3,080 compared to $253,200. Millennials, who were between 23 and 38 years old by the end of 2019, also had less wealth compared to other older generations. Millennials had a median wealth of only $27,420, while Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) had $121,400 and baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964) had a median wealth of $240,900. When excluding home equity, Generation X and baby boomers had a median wealth of $48,070 and $90,060, respectively.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau

Artificial intelligence and machine learning analyses are driving critical decisions impacting our lives and the economic structure of our society. These complex analytical techniques—powered by sophisticated math, computational power, and often vast amounts of data—are deployed in a variety of critical applications, from making healthcare decisions to evaluating job applications to informing parole and probation decisions to determining eligibility and pricing for insurance and other financial services. Artificial intelligence and machine learning models might replicate, amplify, or introduce new sources of bias. Models that rely on latent features identified by the learning algorithm rather than intentionally programmed into the models by developers could reverse engineer applicants’ race or gender from correlations in the input data or create complex variables that have disproportionately negative effects for particular demographic groups. The complexity of machine learning models makes them more challenging to explain to audiences for purposes of informing their downstream activities. This dynamic affects data scientists, compliance personnel, and regulators who need to perform specific oversight functions, as well as individual credit applicants who are seeking to improve their chances of future credit approvals. Especially for non-technical audiences, explaining which features are influential to particular lending decisions can be difficult when the models rely on data relationships that are inherently complex, non-intuitive, large in number, or dependent on other variables or relationships. The report findings lead for a call for stakeholders to engage in a dialogue centered around three core issues: the consumer experience, fairness and inclusion, and model risk management. These conversations should help to advance how public policy and market practice leverage the accuracy and fairness benefits of machine learning techniques while deploying the technology in ways that are sufficiently transparent. Research and stakeholder dialogue will help to inform a roadmap for evolving market practices and public policy to produce an era of more inclusive and fair credit underwriting.

Source: Brookings Institute

Building off of past roundtable conversations around the passage of the federal bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021 and its unprecedented levels of funding for wildfire resilience work, this workshop brought together state, Tribal, federal, non-government organizations, and other experts to create a shared understanding of the scale, distribution, and impacts of post-fire reforestation needs; explore what is being done to address them; and develop recommendations to address gaps and barriers. This summary captures key points from presentations provided during the workshop, along with key topics of discussion. Increasing the resilience of forests to wildfire involves mitigating risk through forest management pre-fire, but also reforestation and restoration work in forests and watersheds after fire occurs. This post-fire management is essential to make sure the landscape can regenerate, be healthier, and better withstand the next fires. Reforestation encompasses a suite of activities, from selection of genetically appropriate species and seeds, stock-type, site preparation, out-planting techniques and windows, to planning for post-planting monitoring. Reforestation ensures that forests can continue to provide clean water and carbon storage, among a host of other benefits. Given the current rates of reforestation, it would take decades to address the existing need, without taking into account future disturbances; a shortfall which has sparked new laws and funding for the U.S. Forest Service. The REPLANT Act, which was part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is the most significant piece of legislation since 1980 for reforestation on national forests. Among its key provisions, the Act directs the agency to develop a new strategy and process to prioritize disturbance-caused reforestation needs, sets a 10-year target to address the reforestation backlog on U.S. Forest Service lands, and adds additional reporting requirements.

Source: Aspen Institute

Health and Human Services
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

This report presents complete period life tables for the United States by Hispanic origin, race, and sex, based on age-specific death rates in 2020. In 2020, the overall expectation of life at birth was 77.0 years, decreasing 1.8 years from 78.8 in 2019. From 2019 to 2020, life expectancy at birth decreased by 2.1 years for males (76.3 to 74.2) and by 1.5 years for females (81.4 to 79.9). In 2020, life expectancy decreased from 2019 by 4.7 years for the non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native population (71.8 to 67.1) and by 4.0 years for the Hispanic population (81.9 to 77.9), 3.3 years for the non-Hispanic Black population (74.8 to 71.5), 2.0 years for the non-Hispanic Asian population (85.6 to 83.6), and 1.4 years for the non-Hispanic White population (78.8 to 77.4). At 77.0 years, U.S. life expectancy at birth for 2020 was the lowest it has been since 2002. Similarly, male life expectancy (74.2) and female life expectancy (79.9) declined to levels not seen since 2000 and 2003, respectively. From 2019 to 2020, the decline in life expectancy at birth based on the final 2020 life tables was 0.3 year greater than that based on provisional 2020 life tables for the total, male, and female populations. The differences are mostly due to differences in mortality estimates for ages 85 and over.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This report presents 2020 fetal mortality data by maternal race and Hispanic origin, age, tobacco use during pregnancy, and state of residence, as well as by plurality, sex, gestational age, birthweight, and selected causes of death. Trends in fetal mortality are also examined. A total of 20,854 fetal deaths at 20 weeks of gestation or more were reported in the United States in 2020. The 2020 U.S. fetal mortality rate was 5.74 fetal deaths at 20 weeks of gestation or more per 1,000 live births and fetal deaths, which was not significantly different from the rate of 5.70 in 2019. The fetal mortality rate in 2020 for deaths occurring at 20–27 weeks of gestation was 2.97, essentially unchanged from 2019 (2.98). For deaths occurring at 28 weeks of gestation or more, the rate in 2020 (2.78) was not significantly different from 2019 (2.73). In 2020, the fetal mortality rate was highest for non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (10.59) and non-Hispanic Black (10.34) women and lowest for non-Hispanic Asian women (3.93). Fetal mortality rates were highest for females under 15 and aged 45 and over, for women who smoked during pregnancy, and for women with multiple gestation pregnancies. Five selected causes accounted for 89.6% of fetal deaths in the 43-state and District of Columbia reporting area. By order of frequency, these were: 1) Fetal death of unspecified cause; 2) Fetus affected by complications of placenta, cord and membranes; 3) Fetus affected by maternal complications of pregnancy; 4) Fetus affected by maternal conditions that may be unrelated to present pregnancy; and 5) Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

On August 4, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary declared a Public Health Emergency for the monkeypox outbreak. Countries in Africa have reported monkeypox since the first human case of monkeypox was identified in 1970 (endemic spread). There have been limited outbreaks in countries outside of Africa. Starting in May 2022, clusters of monkeypox cases were reported in Europe and the United States. Since then, case counts have increased in non-endemic countries— representing the largest outbreak in non-endemic countries in recent history. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of August 4, 2022, over 26,800 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed globally, with over 26,500 cases in countries that have not historically reported endemic spread of the virus; over 7,000 cases have been confirmed in the United States. On June 28, 2022, CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center for monkeypox response. On August 2, 2022, the White House appointed a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official as the lead coordinator for the monkeypox response and assigned a CDC official as his deputy. Other HHS agencies, such as the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR; formerly Office of the Assistant Secretary of Response) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are also actively engaged in response efforts. The White House and HHS agencies have initiated response activities, including supporting education and awareness and defining federal research priorities. Some key response activities include (1) testing; (2) tracking, surveillance, and contract tracing; and (3) medical countermeasures (including vaccines and therapeutics).

Source: Congressional Research Service


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