About MDRC
MacDowell works in MDRC’s Families and Children policy area, focusing on statistical programming, visualizing and analyzing data, and synthesizing findings of early childhood education and maternal and infant home visiting programs. His current projects include the Making Pre-K Count, which examines the effects of a preschool math curriculum, Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation, a federally funded evaluation of home visiting programs, and Family Level Assessment and State of Home Visiting, which studies the processes home visiting programs use to recruit and enroll families. MacDowell received his bachelor’s degree economics from Davidson College, where he conducted research on the effects of racial segregation on social mobility, police force demographics and their relationship to bias and crime, and housing affordability.
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MDRC Publications
ReportThe Impacts of Making Pre-K Count and High 5s on Third-Grade Outcomes
December, 2021Children who received two years of early math enrichment in New York City had improved math test scores in third grade. The size of the effect is equivalent to closing about 40 percent of the achievement gap between children from families with low incomes and their peers from families with higher incomes.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Barbara S. Goldman, Sharon Huang, Shira Kolnik Mattera, Michelle Maier, Seth Muzzy, Electra Small, Samantha Wulfsohn, Marissa Strassberger, Amena Sengal, Mirjana Pralica, Samantha Xia, Cullen MacDowellMaking Pre-K Count is the result of a partnership between MDRC and the Robin Hood Foundation whose goal is to build evidence about ways to improve the life trajectories of children living in poverty in New York City. The partnership’s first project focuses on improving preschool children’s math skills.
Why math? Recent...
Virginia Knox, Charles Michalopoulos, JoAnn Hsueh, Desiree Principe Alderson, Dina A. R. Israel, Erika Lundquist, Electra Small, Carolyn Hill, Rebecca Behrmann, Ximena Portilla, Anne Warren, Samantha Xia, Kelly Saunders, Ilana Blum, Mallory Undestad, Emily Davies, Cullen MacDowell, Marissa Strassberger, Sharon Rowser, Livia Martinez, Helen LeeHome visiting programs operate around the country to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 authorized the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, expanding federal funding of home...