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The thump of the blades cut the humid July air. EMTs heaved me from the helicopter to the gurney and the wind whipped my hair in knots. The hospital doors slammed shut behind us. Ceiling lights whizzed by and I decided to wrap my legs around the bed rails as tight as I could. I was hoping that would keep the baby from being born -- nothing the doctors tried had worked so far. I did not want to meet my baby yet because I did not want to watch it die. [For more of this story, written by Andrea...

“I heard a gong for the first time 15 or 16 years ago,” says Jamie Ford. She’d heard a gong strike before, obviously—“I’d seen the Gong Show”—but this gong, in a 2000 kundalini yoga class, was the first one she’d ever heard. “I heard it and I was just—I went to another place,” Ford tells Quartz. “I was calm. I could travel. Everything just expanded.” At the time, Ford was a biologist studying the desert...

Workers in the United States accumulate the vast majority of their retirement savings through employer-based plans, but large gaps in coverage exist. Pew’s analysis shows that more than 30 million workers report they do not have access to an employer-based retirement plan. The data, drawn from federal sources, show significant differences in access and participation across the states. For example, the share of workers in Wisconsin participating in employer-based plans, such as pensions...

Things to know about Stephen Ritz, one of NPR's 50 Great Teachers: He and his students made bow ties out of Scrabble tiles. His Bronx classroom, a refurbished school library, has more plants than desks. He calls the room his National Health, Wellness and Learning Center. It's got tower gardens, gleaming cabinets and counters, an industrial sink and a new, mobile cooking station. [For more of this story, by Cory Turner and Elissa Nadworny, go...

Two of the panelists at last year’s Straight Talk events, sponsored by The Depot teen center and the Darien Police Department, were mental health therapists Robert DiRoma, Jr and Roody Joseph. The pair opened a practice in Darien, the Counseling Center for Discovery and Change, last May. The practice is a response to a need they both saw for services in the community. They don’t keep conventional office hours and are instead evenings Tuesday through Thursday and on Saturdays.

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...