January 2016

Overview Over the past three decades, imprisonment has become the dominant sanction in the federal criminal justice system. Nine in 10 federal offenders received prison sentences in 2014, up from less than half in 1980, as the use of probation declined steadily. 1 (See Figure 1.) Federal courts sentenced 2,300 fewer offenders to probation in 2014 than in 1980, even though their caseload nearly tripled during that span. 2 Changes in the kinds of offenses and offenders prosecuted in federal...

IISC has long believed that this image, illustrating the difference between equality and equity, is worth a thousand words. As a gift to the world of equity practitioners, IISC engaged artist Angus Maguire  to draw a new version of an old favorite (since we could only find pixilated versions of the original). Please feel free to download the high-resolution image and use in your presentations. [Download at http://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/]

I remember the first time one of my children texted me a photo of a skin lesion. It was not a photo of my own child’s skin, but that of a college roommate’s, and the message was something like: “Hi, Mom, is this anything to worry about?” There was no identifying information — I couldn’t actually tell what part of the body I was looking at — and there was certainly no medical history (a 19-year-old in generally good health has had this mark on the arm...

On a recent, chilly Sunday morning, children ranging in age from 4 to 6 waited with their parents in the cafeteria of a Brooklyn school. Each wore a name tag. The kids chatted cheerfully (in several languages) until each was summoned upstairs to be tested for a spot in New York City's gifted program. Their parents sent them off with hugs and the promise of special treats for doing their best. When a student is identified as "gifted," the label is a vote of confidence — as in the...

(TINY SPOILERS FOR "STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS" BELOW.) On Nov. 13, Jamie Ford noticed something odd about the "Star Wars" play set from Hasbro at Target. This wasn't the first time female leads had been left out of Hasbro's toy lines. Last summer, fans of Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" learned they couldn't buy toys featuring Zoe Saldana's kickass heroine Gamora. Avengers fans who wanted Black Widow action figures? Same story . Leaving Rey out of the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"...

We welcome guest author Godwin Higa, Principal, Cherokee Point Elementary School City Heights, San Diego whose work with childhood adversity and trauma is making a difference in the lives of children.  At Cherokee Point, located in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood, nearly all of our students deal with some sort of childhood adversity. A hundred percent of our students receive free lunches, and most live under the federal poverty guideline. Many of our students' families face daily...

Last week, the Brookings Institution released a  report on inequality in America's cities and metropolitan areas. Authored by Alan Berube and Natalie Holmes , the report compares the incomes of earners in the 95th percentile to those in the 20th percentile, and constructs a "95/20 ratio" for the United States' 100 largest metro areas, and for each metro area's largest city. Among the report's main findings: There is still substantial variation in inequality levels across the...

Picture a nine-year-old boy—we’ll call him Brian—sitting down one day during the spring semester with his No. 2 pencil to take the National Assessment for Educational Progress, the test best known as the Nation’s Report Card. If he’s like two-thirds of students in the United States, he won’t fully understand what he is reading. He will have been so unprepared in literacy that he cannot hit the proficient mark on this fourth-grade material. This will not...

A Massachusetts nonprofit uses music to help survivors of trauma, and it’s led by a former rock star. Robin Lane came to fame with her Boston-based band Robin Lane and The Chartbusters. Their biggest hit, “ When Things Go Wrong ,” aired in the first hour on day one of MTV. A lot of the singer/songwriter’s life reads like an unlikely series of namechecks: her father played piano and wrote hits for Dean Martin; she hung out with Neil Young and sang on one of his albums;...

The United States is currently in the middle of a grand experiment in wages . On January 1, 14 states officially raised their minimum wages, 12 of which did so through legislative action as opposed to an automatic adjustment. With minimum wage advocates making major gains in state legislatures in 2015, the tweaks that went into effect on New Year's Day seem designed to answer the question: Will raising the minimum wage actually kill jobs? That's the argument among opponents of wage...

Luvenia Jackson knows students can’t learn when they’re in jail. During 40 years in education, the Clayton County Public Schools superintendent has seen that academic performance cannot improve systemwide under zero-tolerance discipline . Instead of leading to safer buildings and higher achievement, the strict policies cause excessive suspensions, lost instruction time, and students to be needlessly traumatized by criminal charges—all over behavior that can be...

B ritish Prime Minister David Cameron thinks parents need government-approved advice on raising kids. British parents aren't exactly thrilled with this recent proclamation. One of Cameron's new policy prescriptions, unveiled Monday with an announcement that England will pour £70 million over the next five years into “relationship support,” was state-backed parenting classes. Vouchers, he said, would help cover the enrollment of low-income families. Behind...