The United States is often characterized as among the most religious, and religiously diverse, nations in the world. Yet the depth of Americans’ understanding of both the content of religion and its dynamics with government and society has not been broadly assessed.
The concept of merit pay in education is simple enough: Bonuses are given to educators who succeed at their jobs based on agreed-upon criteria, which can include the results of standardized tests, evaluations or other measures. Merit pay has received support as part of the federal “Race to the Top” initiative, and a number of state and local efforts have included such programs. As with many education reform initiatives, however, criticism isn’t lacking.
In the United States, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women. For women between 50 and 70 years old, screening mammography has long been recommended has as a means to detect cancers as early as possible and thus begin treatment sooner.
In 2007 the World Health Organization introduced a surgical safety checklist as part of its Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative. The checklist’s purpose was to reduce surgical complications that result from inadequate safety practices as well as to promote greater communication among surgery teams.
Millions of dollars of instructional videos for infants have been sold to hopeful parents in the past decade, many promising accelerated learning. While children may enjoy watching such products, are there any real educational benefits, or are they just “electronic babysitters”?
The 2010 U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act bears a number of similarities to the Massachusetts health care reform enacted four years earlier. Among them is a requirement that individuals buy insurance coverage or pay a fine, sometimes referred to as an “individual mandate.”
The U.S. Constitution automatically grants citizenship to those born in the United States whatever the status of their parents. Tensions surrounding immigration have increased over the last decade, however, leading to suggestions that rescinding the automatic right to citizenship would discourage unauthorized immigration.
About one-third of elderly participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, were diabetic in 2006. Despite the high and growing prevalence of diabetics among Food Stamp recipients, there is a lack of information on the effects of such in-kind transfers on recipients’ health.
Problems facing Latinos and African-American men continue to represent a nationwide social challenge. Sustained disparities in socioeconomic well-being across race and ethnicity imply that efforts must be undertaken to bridge the inequality.
