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Most Recent K-12 Education Publications
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The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs
Final Report
This report presents two-year implementation and impact findings on two supplemental academic instruction approaches developed for after-school settings -- one for math and one for reading. It addresses whether one-year impacts are different in the second year of program operations and whether students benefit from being offered two years of enhanced after-school academic instruction.
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Understanding Reading First
What We Know, What We Don’t, and What’s Next
Studies of Reading First released in 2008 found no overall effect on student reading comprehension, and the program was eliminated in 2009. However, the research findings were more nuanced than was widely reported, and they offer lessons for policymakers making critical choices today about how the federal government can best support the teaching of reading to young children.
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Reengaging High School Dropouts
Early Results of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program Evaluation
Very early results from a random assignment evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive, “quasi-military” residential program for high school dropouts, show that the program has large impacts on high school diploma and GED attainment and positive effects on working, college-going, health, self-efficacy, and avoiding arrest.
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Most Recent Higher Education Publications
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Paying for College Success
An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration
This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships — paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks — are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.
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Building Student Success From the Ground Up
A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College
Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform.
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More Guidance, Better Results?
Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges
In this program, low-income students received enhanced student services and were eligible for a modest stipend for two semesters. The program improved academic outcomes in the second semester and registration in the semester after that, but these effects did not persist in subsequent semesters.
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Most Recent Families & Children Publications
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Alternative Welfare-to-Work Strategies for the Hard-to-Employ
Testing Transitional Jobs and Pre-Employment Services in Philadelphia
Interim results from an evaluation of two different welfare-to-work strategies for long-term welfare recipients show that transitional jobs increase employment and earnings but that it is difficult to successfully engage participants in extensive pre-employment services.
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Promoting Preschool Quality Through Effective Classroom Management
Implementation Lessons from the Foundations of Learning Demonstration
Foundations of Learning provided in-class training and support to teachers, and one-on-one clinical services to children, to enhance preschool quality. This report offers lessons regarding program design, management, staffing, and professional development issues that arose during implementation in Newark, NJ.
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Spending Time Together
Time Use Estimates for Economically Disadvantaged and Nondisadvantaged Married Couples in the United States
Contrary to some expectations, economically disadvantaged couples spend slightly more time together than nondisadvantaged ones, and more of that time is spent in leisure activities, according to this paper from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project. While these couples may face different barriers to participating in voluntary programs than higher-income couples, their “time crunch” appears to be no worse.
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Most Recent Workers & Communities Publications
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Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization
Will the Past Be Prologue?
In remarks given at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, MDRC President Gordon Berlin looks at the extraordinary challenges the current labor market presents to employment policy generally and WIA reauthorization specifically, outlines what we have (and haven’t) learned from research, and makes recommendations for future directions.
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Helping Low-Wage Workers Access Work Supports
Lessons for Practitioners
This 12-page brief distills practical implementation lessons from four programs that help low-wage workers access and retain child care subsidies, public health insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and other related government benefits.
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Findings for the Eugene and Medford, Oregon, Models
Implementation and Early Impacts for Two Programs That Sought to Encourage Advancement Among Low-Income Workers
While these two different programs in the Employment Retention and Advancement Project both increased service receipt, neither had effects on job retention or advancement after 1.5 years of follow-up.
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Most Recent Health & Barriers to Employment Publications
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New Empirical Evidence for the Design of Group Randomized Trials in Education
This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing studies that randomize groups to measure the impacts of educational interventions.
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Modern Regression Discontinuity Analysis
Working Paper
This paper provides a detailed discussion of the theory and practice of modern regression discontinuity. It describes how regression discontinuity analysis can provide valid and reliable estimates of general causal effects and of the specific effects of a particular treatment on outcomes for particular persons or groups.
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Alternative Welfare-to-Work Strategies for the Hard-to-Employ
Testing Transitional Jobs and Pre-Employment Services in Philadelphia
Interim results from an evaluation of two different welfare-to-work strategies for long-term welfare recipients show that transitional jobs increase employment and earnings but that it is difficult to successfully engage participants in extensive pre-employment services.
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