Working in partnership with others, MDRC has built an important body of evidence about what works — and doesn't work — to address some of society's toughest problems. Through rigorous research in education, employment, welfare reform, housing, and programs for children and youth, MDRC has shown that some programs can both improve the lives of individuals and be a good investment of taxpayer dollars. Here are some key lessons learned from MDRC’s research findings, as well as links to the supporting studies:

Increasing Adult Employment and Earnings

Welfare-to-work programs can increase employment, reduce welfare dependence, and save taxpayers money, but they generally do not increase family income.

How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Employment and Income: A Synthesis of Research by Dan Bloom and Charles Michalopoulos, 2001

Policies that supplement the earnings of low-wage workers can increase employment and income and reduce poverty, but they typically cost more than traditional welfare programs.

	Encouraging Work, Reducing Poverty: The Impact of Work Incentive Programs by Gordon L. Berlin, 2000
	Does Making Work Pay Still Pay? An Update on the Effects of Four Earnings Supplement Programs on Employment, Earnings, and Income by Charles Michalopoulos, 2005

“Mixed” welfare-to-work strategies that combine job search and education or training increase the earnings of welfare recipients more than either approach alone. Programs using a mixed approach created more than double the earnings gains for welfare recipients when compared to programs using either of the approaches alone.

Moving People from Welfare to Work: Lessons from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies by Gayle Hamilton, 2002

Strategies that combine employment-related services, rent breaks as an incentive to work and earn more, and neighbor-to-neighbor outreach can substantially boost earnings for the disadvantaged populations living in public housing.

Promoting Work in Public Housing: The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus by Howard S. Bloom, James A. Riccio, and Nandita Verma, 2005

Unpaid work-experience programs — or workfare — have had little effect on increasing employment and earnings or reducing welfare receipt among participants. Contrary to some expectations, however, workfare participants said they found the work meaningful, even though they learned few skills, and supervisors ranked the quality of the work performed by workfare participants as similar to that of paid staff.

Unpaid Work Experience for Welfare Recipients: Findings and Lessons from MDRC Research by Thomas Brock, David Butler, and David Long, 1993

Strengthening Schools

Increased investments in career and technical education with employer involvement during high school can have a substantial, long-term payoff in the labor market for young men from low-income communities — without reducing the likelihood that they will enroll in higher education.

Career Academies: Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes and Educational Attainment by James Kemple, 2004

Comprehensive school reforms that transform low-performing high schools into small, supportive learning communities, enhance math and reading instruction, and provide professional development to teachers and administrators can substantially enhance students’ performance and their progress toward graduation.

	Making Progress Toward Graduation: Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model by James Kemple, Corinne Herlihy, and Thomas Smith, 2005
	The Challenge of Scaling Up Educational Reform: Findings and Lessons from First Things First by Janet Quint, Howard S. Bloom, Alison Rebeck Black, and LaFleur Stephens, 2005

Programs that create small learning communities and that offer support services for low-income freshmen at community colleges can substantially improve students’ performance during their first semesters, including taking and passing critical developmental courses (including English)

Building Learning Communities: Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration at Kingsborough Community College by Dan Bloom and Colleen Sommo, 2005

Promoting Child Well-Being

Policies that supplement low-income parents’ earnings increase their income and employment, while also helping improve the school readiness and academic achievement of their preschool and early school-age children. By contrast, strategies that increase the employment of working parents without offering earning supplements do not have the same positive effects.

	How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Children: A Synthesis of Research by Pamela Morris, Aletha Huston, Greg Duncan, Danielle Crosby, and Johannes Bos, 2001
	Effects of Welfare and Employment Policies on Young Children: New Findings on Policy Experiments Conducted in the Early 1990s by Pamela Morris, Lisa Gennetian, and Greg Duncan, 2005

Welfare-to-work policies have had adverse effects on some school outcomes among adolescents — particularly for those who had younger siblings. Increased home responsibilities and sibling care by adolescents, and reduced monitoring by their parents, are potential explanations for these negative effects.

How Welfare and Work Policies for Parents Affect Adolescents: A Synthesis of Research by Lisa Gennetian, Greg Duncan, Virginia Knox, Wanda Vargas, Elizabeth Clark-Kauffman, and Andrew London, 2002

Increasing Youth Employment

Use of public funds to create jobs can dramatically increase employment among at-risk youth and eliminate some racial disparities in employment.

Lessons from a Job Guarantee: The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects by Judith M. Gueron, 1984