RAND Corporation

About: RAND Corporation is a nonprofit organization based out in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Health care & Population. The organization has 9602 authors who have published 18570 publications receiving 744658 citations.

Help or Hindrance? The Effects of College Remediation on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract: Providing remedial (also known as developmental) education is the primary way colleges cope with students who do not have the academic preparation needed to succeed in college-level courses. Remediation is widespread, with nearly one-third of entering freshmen taking remedial courses at an annual cost of at least $1 billion. Despite its prevalence, there is uncertainty surrounding its short- and longer-run effects. This paper presents new evidence on this question using longitudinal administrative data from Texas and a regression discontinuity research design. We find little indication that remediation improves academic or labor market outcomes.

Policy analysis: a systematic approach to supporting policymaking in the public sector

Abstract: This paper describes a systematic process for examining complex public policy choices that has been developed and refined over the past 50 years and is often called policy analysis. Its purpose is to assist policymakers in choosing preferred courses of action by clarifying the problem, outlining the alternative solutions and displaying tradeoffs among their consequences. In most real-world policy situations there are many possible alternatives, many uncertainties, many stakeholders and many consequences of interest. Also, there is usually no single decisionmaker and little chance of obtaining agreement on a single set of preferences among the consequences. As a result, there is no way to identify an optimal solution. Instead, policy analysis uses a variety of tools to develop relevant information and present it to the parties involved in the policymaking process in a manner that helps them come to a decision. It is a problem-oriented approach that does not presume a model structure for assessing the consequences of a policy or ranking the alternatives. The paper provides a brief history of policy analysis, describes the most important elements of the policy analysis process, provides an illustrative example of the use of the approach and suggests directions for future developments that can enrich the approach and increase the chances for successful use of the results. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How can care for depression become more cost-effective?

Abstract: Objective. —To determine the cost and health effects of changes in the content and quality of care for depressed patients treated in prepaid general medical practices (internal and family medicine) and mental health specialty practices and shifts in the proportion of patients treated in general medicine. Methods. —Cost-effectiveness analysis and simulations, which are empirically based on data from the Medical Outcomes Study. Outcome Measures. —Change in serious functional limitations, annual treatment costs per patient, and costs per reduction in one functional limitation. Results. —More appropriate care for depression (increased counseling, use of appropriate antidepressant medications, or avoidance of regular minor tranquilizer use) improves functioning outcomes. Although this approach increases total costs of care, it also improves the value of care because each dollar spent on care now provides more benefits in terms of health improvements. In contrast with the effects of more appropriate care for depression, the trend away from mental health specialty care and toward general medical provider care under current treatment patterns reduces costs, worsens outcomes, and does not increase the value of health care spending in terms of health improvement per dollar. Conclusion. —Quality improvement measures that roughly follow practice guidelines for depression can improve outcomes and the value or cost-effectiveness of care, but at increased treatment costs; shifting patients away from mental health specialists decreases costs but worsens functioning outcomes. The best strategy for making care for depression more cost-effective is through quality improvement, not through changing specialty mix. Yet combining these strategies may achieve better outcomes, lower treatment costs, and better value of care compared with current practice patterns. To realize this potential, however, substantial quality improvement of care for depression is necessary in general medical practice. (JAMA. 1995;273:51-58)

Propagation of a Finite Optical Beam in an Inhomogeneous Medium

Abstract: The first part of this paper is devoted to extending the Huygens-Fresnel principle to a medium that exhibits a spatial (but not temporal) variation in index of refraction. Utilizing a reciprocity theorem for a monochromatic disturbance in a weakly inhomogeneous medium, it is shown that the secondary wavefront will be determined by the envelope of spherical wavelets from the primary wavefront, as in the vacuum problem, but that each wavelet is now determined by the propagation of a spherical wave in the refractive medium. In the second part, the above development is applied to the case in which the index of refraction is a random variable; a further application of the reciprocity theorem results in a formula for the mean intensity distribution from a finite aperture in terms of the complex disturbance in the aperture and the modulation transfer function (MTF) for a spherical wave in the medium. The results are applicable for an arbitrary complex disturbance in the transmitting aperture in both the Fresnel and Fraunhofer regions of the aperture. Using a Kolmogorov spectrum for the index of refraction fluctuations and a second-order expression for the MTF, the formula is used to calculate the mean intensity distribution for a plane wave diffracting from a circular aperture and to give approximate expressions for the beam spreading at various ranges.