Native American health continues to lag behind other populations in the US. In fact, the American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) population lives, on average, 4.4 fewer years than the rest of the US population, and is experiencing significant disparities in a variety of health indicators. The numbers reveal this stark
You never know where you’ll see great teaching in action. That was made abundantly clear to me when my family ventured to rural Lillington, North Carolina to learn about falconry, civilization’s oldest form of hunting. We are not hunters ourselves, but my husband is fascinated by birds of prey and
Improper payments continue to plague the federal government, though many actions are in motion to help turn the tide. The Trump Administration’s Building a Better America: A Plan for Fiscal Responsibility, released in July 2017, emphasizes reducing improper payments, currently estimated by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to total
Any look back at analytics in 2017 makes it clear that machine learning and artificial intelligence appear to be the ‘next big things’ that can solve just about any problem, from writing new hit songs to curing disease. Not one to buy into the hype, I became curious as to
I wish this were a blog about a new super-affordable airline, but instead capital flight is the illegal movement of money from its country of origin, transit or destination. This movement of money through facilitators is creating a hyper-breed of criminal enterprise using the regulations of the world’s financial systems
The latest post in our Equity in Education series focuses on the achievement gap. National achievement data show that our public education systems work well for students with means. And not so well for disadvantaged students. Racial achievement gaps are found in the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), also
Procurement fraud, often a form of internal fraud, is common fraud’s black sheep of the family...whispered about at gatherings or ignored in hopes that it will simply go away. No one wants to shine a questioning light onto trusted employees or imply wrongdoing within our purchasing departments, but the fact
In May, the New York Times published an article “The Little Known Statistician Who Taught Us to Measure Teachers” which profiled the life of Dr. Bill Sanders. The author reflected on Dr. Sanders’ life and work improving education for all students. For those of us in education, Dr. Sanders’ work
Two of my colleagues have shared their experiences as a statistic and a child who could have been left behind. I too have my own story that helped drive my passion. All of us define equity in different ways. Equity is a concept that is hard to define, and we
A new book from SAS guides public sector leaders in the use of data to address a wide range of state and local government challenges. Each chapter deals with critical issues facing our country, including the opioid epidemic, child abuse, spiraling health care costs, prison overcrowding, education reform, rampant fraud and the
