About MDRC

Shane works in MDRC’s K-12 education policy area. She currently serves as the quantitative data manager for the evaluation of Teach for America’s redesigned national institute model and for the Diplomas Now Investing in Innovation (i3) evaluation, an impact study of a secondary school reform model. Previously, she served as the quantitative data manager and analyst for the Reading Partners evaluation, an impact study of a one-on-one volunteer tutoring program that serves struggling readers in low-income elementary schools. She is an experienced SAS programmer and trains novice programmers on her project teams. Before joining MDRC in 2012, Shane worked as a SAS programmer and project manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto, California, for over seven years. While there, she performed research in several areas of veterans’ health care, including spinal pain, prostate cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has also worked as a computer and clerical skills instructor at a San Francisco-based institute for adult education.
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MDRC Publications
ReportFindings from a Study of Teach For America’s Handoff Program
September, 2020This study evaluated TFA’s initiative to better align its regional in-service training during the school year with its national pre-service summer teacher training, which emphasized a productive learning environment and diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. Teachers who received more in-service training in those national components adopted more culturally relevant classroom practices.
ReportInterim Impact Findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Evaluation of Diplomas Now
June, 2016The Diplomas Now whole-school reform model, including targeted interventions for students at risk of dropping out, had an impact on the percentage of students with no early warning indicators related to attendance, behavior, or course performance, and had more encouraging results in middle schools than high schools.
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Other Publications
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Projects
The California State University ( CSU ) system is proposing a policy change that would require graduating high school students, beginning with the entering first-year class of 2027, to complete one additional course in quantitative reasoning to meet the minimum qualifications for first-year admission. The objectives for this proposed policy change are to help ensure...
Teach for America ( TFA ) is a national, externally validated program that recruits, selects, and trains new teachers, referred to as corps members, for placement in high-need urban and rural communities across the country, with the expectation that they put their students on the path to college and life success. TFA has received a Supporting Effective Educator...
Improving the reading performance of at-risk elementary students is one of the greatest challenges confronting American education. Success for All, a program aimed at ensuring that every child learns to read throughout the elementary grades, was one of the most carefully evaluated approaches to improving reading among high-poverty elementary school students at the time...
While educators and officials across the United States are struggling with how to raise student achievement and improve graduation rates, very few programs have been shown to work at scale in achieving either goal. In 2010, through the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund, the U.S. Department of Education selected several promising programs for expansion and further...