MDRC has recently redesigned the In Practice section of its Web site. Sound research only makes a difference if the leaders who make decisions about policies and programs can use it. MDRC has a three-decade track record of producing products that communicate practical lessons about what works — and doesn’t work — in education and social programs to policymakers and practitioners.

MDRC’s popular “how-to” guides present promising practices for designing high school reform efforts, creating employment programs for reentering prisoners, offering financial work incentives for low-wage workers, developing a responsible fatherhood curriculum, and designing employment programs for welfare recipients and other “hard-to-employ” populations, among other interventions.

Our video series offers brief summaries of the latest MDRC research on promoting work in public housing, on the effects of welfare and earnings supplement programs on adults and their children, and on innovative reforms in K-12 and postsecondary education.

The policy briefs posted on our site explain the implications for policymaking that arise from MDRC’s research on high school reform, welfare-to-work programs, earnings supplement programs, and training and employment programs.

MDRC Issue Focus pieces and Fast Facts offer new reflections on important issues of the day — answering such questions as: Why has the poverty rate not fallen since the early 1970s? How do we assist students who enter high school with poor academic skills? What’s the right role for education and training in welfare reform? Can employment programs help ex-prisoners successfully reenter society? Why focus on the “hard-to-employ”?

Finally, MDRC makes available selected PowerPoint presentations prepared by MDRC staff. They present the latest descriptions of our research and demonstration projects, as well as of their findings.