When Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, RAND created the Gulf States Policy Institute to support hurricane recovery and long-term economic development. The institute continues to provide objective analysis—on a range of issues from coastal protection and restoration to health care and workforce development—to government leaders in support of evidence-based policymaking and the well-being of individuals throughout the Gulf States region.
PERIODICAL
In the spring 2012 issue of RAND Review, RAND president Michael Rich writes, "Since its founding in 1970, PRGS has trained generations of policy leaders. ... The school exhorts students and faculty to 'be the answer' in addressing policy challenges in our communities and around the world."
COMMENTARY
RAND President and CEO Michael Rich writes about how RAND computer models and empirical analyses are helping protect and restore the Louisiana coast.
PERIODICAL
Stories discuss Iran's nuclear threat, social security for Mexico's aging population, programs to help veterans and their families, the costs of crime and the value of police officers, psychological operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. health insurance mandate, legal representation in murder cases, marijuana legalization, U.S. competitiveness in educational achievement, and Louisiana's plan for a sustainable coast.
PROJECT
The New Orleans Police Department launched a new crime-fighting plan in late January, with the title "SOS: Save Our Sons." The plan was developed using policing research similar to the findings of RAND's Center on Quality Policing.
PROJECT
Alabama's anti-illegal immigration law is regarded as the strictest in the United States and raises several enforcement challenges for police, schools, and other public service providers such as hospitals. RAND research on the costs and benefits of immigration may prove instructive.
REPORT
The Dallas Police Department received a $5 million grant in 2006 to install laptops and video recorders in patrol cars and thus modernize its operations. RAND evaluated the initiative and found it to be generally successful, despite some implementation problems.
REPORT
In 2006, the Communities Foundation of Texas allocated $10 million to the Dallas Police Department to establish the W. W. Caruth Jr. Police Institute. An evaluation of the institute's first course considered participants' opinions of the course's impact on their approach to their jobs, their relationships with supervisors and subordinates, and their sense of solidarity with their coworkers.
REPORT
Safe Start Promising Approaches (SSPA) is the second phase of a community-based initiative focused on developing and fielding interventions to prevent and reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence. This report shares the results of SSPA, which was intended to implement and evaluate promising and evidence-based programs in 15 program sites across the country.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This article examines what constitutes, contributes to, and is associated with high-quality coaches and coaching. Authors find that coaches generally held many of the qualifications recommended by state and national experts and principals and teachers rated their coaches highly on many indicators of quality. However, several common concerns about recruiting, retaining, and supporting high-quality coaches emerged.
REPORT
Geographic information system (GIS) mapping software is a promising tool for enhancing priority-setting and resource allocation in local health departments (LHDs) by displaying complex geospatial information in an integrated, visual way, enabling comparison of where health services are needed with where they are provided. The study describes options for accessing GIS data and suggests ways for LHDs to integrate GIS into their planning…
REPORT
Hurricane Katrina set the stage for a transformation of public education in New Orleans, replacing the city's existing school system with a decentralized choice-based system of both charter and district-run schools. Using principal, teacher, and parent surveys administered three years after Katrina, this study examined schools' governance and operations, educational contexts, educator quality and mobility, and parental choice and…
RESEARCH BRIEF
RAND researchers found many similarities between charter and traditional schools in New Orleans but greater satisfaction among charter school parents with their children's schools, as well as more perceived choices.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Describes how nonstructural measures — such as incentives for home elevation, incentives for relocation to lower-risk areas, and restrictions on the use of floodplain land — can make New Orleans less vulnerable to storm surge.
PERIODICAL
The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks warrants a thoughtful review of America's progress and future strategy. In this RAND Review cover story, RAND experts offer perspectives on Afghan-led solutions, ways to counter al Qaeda, air passenger security, and compensation for those affected by terrorism.
REPORT
Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.
RESEARCH BRIEF
People with asbestos injuries are increasingly receiving compensation from trusts set up by bankrupt asbestos defendants. This brief documents how courts handling these cases consider trust payments when determining compensation.
NEWS RELEASE
Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The mean value of travel time savings obtained from a random parameters logit model estimated using the respondents who received the D-efficient design survey was closer to what is typically found in the literature.
NEWS RELEASE
The composition of households in New Orleans made the city's families more vulnerable to breakup during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina.
RESEARCH BRIEF
The composition of households in New Orleans made the city's families more vulnerable to breakup during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina. Two-thirds of the city's households at that time saw at least one family member move away, an unusually high number even given the tremendous destruction of the hurricane.
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