About MDRC
Condliffe is a mixed-methods researcher who leads education projects in the K-12 policy area, focusing on various topics including supplemental academic supports, student social and emotional well-being, and school choice. Since starting at MDRC in 2014, Condliffe has led numerous large-scale rigorous research projects, including the National Evaluation of Training in Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior conducted for the U.S. Department of Education. Condliffe also leads several partnerships with public education agencies and nonprofit providers to support their application of research insights and methodologies to their program improvement efforts. Before joining MDRC, Condliffe was a researcher with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium. She also taught middle and high school English in New York City and worked at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. Condliffe holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in teaching from Brooklyn College. She was an Institute of Education Sciences predoctoral training fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her Ph.D. in sociology.
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MDRC Publications
Issue FocusSeptember, 2023MDRC recently conducted an evaluation of training and technical assistance for elementary schools implementing a widely used approach called multi-tiered systems of support for student behavior (MTSS-B). This essay summarizes the findings and offers lessons for future applications of the approach.
Issue FocusJuly, 2023High-dosage tutoring (HDT) programs are a proven way to accelerate student learning. The Personalized Learning Initiative is studying and supporting the expansion of HDT across the country. This post shares what the team has learned so far plus a planning tool that districts can use to implement such programs.
ReportImpacts on Elementary School Students’ Outcomes
July, 2022Disruptive behaviors in school can hinder students’ learning and long-term success. This study evaluated a “multi-tiered systems of support for behavior” program, which reinforces good behavior and provides supplemental support to students in need. Overall student outcomes did not improve but students who struggled the most saw some short-term benefits.
Issue FocusJune, 2021MDRC’s Equity Collaborative has developed a set of guiding questions to help researchers incorporate culturally responsive practices and an equity-based perspective in all stages of an evaluation or technical assistance project.
ReportLessons Learned from a Research-Practice Partnership with New York City’s Department of Education
May, 2021A research-practice partnership between MDRC and the New York City Department of Education focused on mutual learning using insights from behavioral science and human-centered design to achieve five learning goals related to the kindergarten application process. This report discusses study results and lessons learned for each of the five goals.
InfographicBarriers to Student Success and Opportunities for Improvement
December, 2020Working with the City University of New York, MDRC’s Center for Applied Behavioral Science mapped factors that impede students transferring from community colleges. This blueprint shows the stages of the transfer process, with information about challenges at each stage and interventions informed by behavioral science that could help overcome them.
Issue FocusJune, 2020Implementation researchers can be good partners to program operators at this difficult time — by being sensitive to the new constraints that programs face, by assessing how learning agendas and evaluation plans need to change, and by helping programs learn from the adaptations they are making in response to the pandemic.
BriefEngagement in New York City’s Kindergarten Application
March, 2019Parents applying to kindergarten today must follow multiple steps. Identifying families who do not apply can help a school system improve its application process and can help it target families who need support. MDRC partnered with the New York City Department of Education to conduct this sort of diagnosis.
BriefChallenges and Opportunities in Summer Programs for Rising Kindergarten Students
May, 2018One focus of the Expanding Children’s Early Learning (ExCEL) Network is the potential value of programs to promote school readiness in the months preceding kindergarten. This brief summarizes lessons learned from a six-week pilot program and consultation with practitioners on three implementation issues — recruitment, attendance, and family involvement.
Issue FocusJanuary, 2018This issue focus discusses the conclusions of a recent MDRC working paper, Project-Based Learning: A Literature Review. The paper found that project-based learning holds promise for improving students’ outcomes but that much remains to be learned about its effectiveness and about how its implementation can be strengthened.
Working PaperA Literature Review
October, 2017Examining the scholarly literature published since a seminal review in 2000, this working paper discusses the principles that underlie project-based learning, how it has been used in K-12 settings, the challenges teachers have confronted in implementing it, and what is known about its effectiveness in improving students’ learning outcomes.
BriefBuilding a School Choice Architecture
June, 2017As school choice systems expand, district enrollment offices are striving to make the choice process accessible and clear for families. This practitioner brief offers lessons for supporting families through the sequence of decisions involved as they engage in the process, search for information, and compare and select schools.
Issue FocusApril, 2017School choice systems can be complex and confusing for low-income families. In the search for solutions, researchers and policymakers may have overlooked lessons from other policy arenas. This issue focus suggests strategies from MDRC’s experience designing and evaluating interventions to support low-income people’s decision making in arenas outside P-12 choice systems.
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Other Publications
Condliffe, Barbara, Rekha Balu, Margaret Hennessy, and Rachel Leopold. 2020. “The Promise of a Collaborative Approach to Problem-Solving and Innovation-Testing: Reflections from a New Research-Practice Partnership in New York City.” NNERPP Extra 2, 2: 14–18.
Hsueh, JoAnn, Barbara Condliffe, William Corrin, Samantha Steimle, Rekha Balu, Margaret Hennessy, Sharon Huang, Vianny Lugo-Aracena, Michelle Maier, Shira Mattera, Shay O’ Brien, Amena Sengal, Jed Teres, Samantha Wulfson, and Jennifer Yeaton. 2021. "Building Toward Effectiveness.” The Future of Children 31, 1: 161–168.
McCormick, Meghan P., Mirjana Pralica, Paola Guerrero-Rosada, Christina Weiland, JoAnn Hsueh, Barbara Condliffe, and Catherine Snow. 2021. “Can Center-Based Care Reduce Summer Slowdown Prior to Kindergarten? Exploring Variation by Family Income, Race/Ethnicity, and Dual Language Learner Status.” American Educational Research Journal 58, 2: 420–455.
Alexander, Karl, and Barbara Falk Condliffe. 2016. "Summer Setback in Baltimore: A Review and Update." Pages 23-34 in Karl Alexander, Sarah Pitcock, and Matthew Boulay (eds.), The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss. New York: Teachers College Press.
Condliffe, Barbara. 2016. “Selecting Summer: How Elementary School Parents Make Choices About Summer Programs.” Pages 146-160 in Karl Alexander, Sarah Pitcock, and Matthew Boulay (eds.), The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss. New York: Teachers College Press.
Condliffe, Barbara F., Melody L. Boyd, and Stefanie DeLuca. 2015. "Stuck in School: How Social Context Shapes School Choice for Inner-City Students." Teachers College Record 117, 3: 1-36.
Plank, Stephen B., and Barbara Falk Condliffe. 2013. "Pressures of the Season: An Examination of Classroom Quality and High-Stakes Accountability." American Educational Research Journal 50, 5: 1152-1182.
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Projects
Jean Grossman, Shira Kolnik Mattera, Barbara Condliffe, Dina A. R. Israel, Jedediah J. Teres, Hannah Dalporto, Sonia Drohojowska, Lauren Scarola, Frieda Molina, Rebecca Schwartz, Mei Huang, Rebecca Davis, Julia WalshThe pandemic has led to unfinished learning for a broad swath of students. This unfinished learning has also exacerbated existing disparities in student outcomes by race and ethnicity, income, and geography. Research has shown that high-dosage tutoring is the most effective way for improving learning for many students. But high-dosage tutoring is cost- and resource-...
William Corrin, Barbara Condliffe, Marie-Andrée Somers, Susan Sepanik, Shelley Rappaport, Margaret Hennessy, Hannah Power, Elizabeth Ederer, Julia WalshMDRC , in collaboration with RAND Corporation, Digital Promise, Westat, and Public Strategies, is conducting a large-scale, national evaluation project, the ReSolve Math Study, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
The coronavirus pandemic led to substantial unfinished learning in math, exacerbating longstanding equity...
Rebecca Unterman, Kelly Granito, Jedediah J. Teres, Emma Alterman, Faith Lewis, Matthew MacFarlane, Barbara Condliffe, Sonia Drohojowska, Crystal Nuñez, Byeonghyeon SoXQ Institute was founded in 2015 with the goal of “re-thinking the high school experience” so that all students get the preparation they need for college and careers and grow to the fullest as civic participants, critical readers, proactive problem solvers, original thinkers, generous collaborators, and learners for life.
XQ funds the design and...
Caitlin Anzelone, Barbara Condliffe, Rebecca Schwartz, Margaret Hennessy, Xavier Alemañy, Sophia SutcliffeThe Center for Applied Behavioral Science ( CABS ) at MDRC is excited to launch the Applied Behavioral Coalition ( ABC ) project, which partners with nonprofit organizations that serve vulnerable and at-risk populations in the United States. ABC ’s goal is to build each organization’s foundation in behavioral science and human-centered design principles. Leaders, staff...
Professionals and researchers in education acknowledge there are great disparities in the types of opportunities and quality of teaching that different schools offer to students—and that differences in how students experience transitions into kindergarten, middle school, and high school can magnify inequality over time. School application and enrollment are critical...
JoAnn Hsueh, Sharon Huang, Meghan McCormick, Michelle Maier, Rebecca Unterman, Desiree Principe Alderson, Barbara Condliffe, Amena Sengal, Sonia Drohojowska, Ilana Blum, Marissa Strassberger, Marie-Andrée Somers, Noemi Altman, Alexandra Bernardi, Mirjana Pralica, Mervett Hefyan, Jálynn Castleman-Smith, Mallory Undestad, Samantha Xia, Emily Davies, Sharon Rowser, Amy Taub, Samuel MavesWith broad support across the political spectrum, states and localities throughout the country are expanding preschool programs for low-income children. While the public will is strong and the experience to date is encouraging, there is a need for firmer evidence on the most cost-effective ways to produce lasting impacts for children, especially when programs operate...
Caitlin Anzelone, Clinton Key, Mary Bambino, Barbara Condliffe, Rebecca Schwartz, Jared Smith, Margaret Hennessy, Xavier AlemañyPolicymakers and administrators are increasingly using evidence about human behavior to improve the design of social services. People — who often rely on intuition instead of reason, make inconsistent choices over time, and can be overloaded by information — are the clients who receive services, the staff who provide them, and the policymakers who create them....
Fred Doolittle, Mark van Dok, Pei Zhu, Barbara Condliffe, Sonia Drohojowska, Emma Alterman, Osvaldo Avila, Jedediah J. Teres, Hannah PowerToo often, elementary school students lack the behavioral and social skills necessary to focus on academics and achieve in school. Without proper support, teachers inevitably spend far too much time managing their students’ behavior and too little time actually teaching. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior ( MTSS -B) is not a specific model but a compilation...