About MDRC
Alterman is an implementation, qualitative methods, and operations specialist whose expertise includes stakeholder interviews, qualitative analysis, and large-scale, multisite implementation data collection. Her work largely focuses on high school structures and supports and the transition to college and career. She is currently leading implementation research on two Institute of Education Sciences research grants based in New York City high schools: the P-TECH 9-14 Evaluation, a high school model that gives students college experience and workplace exposure, and the Study of Urban Assembly, a school support network. She also does qualitative work on the XQ Schools Study, a study of high school design and redesign. Alterman recently led the development and analysis of the Reconnecting Youth compendium, examining programs serving opportunity youth for the Department of Health and Human Services. Her other current and prior work includes evaluations of United2Read, Networks for School Improvement, New Visions for Public Schools’ Drive to Write, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior. Alterman has worked as a resource manager for the K-12 Education policy area, overseeing project budgets and staffing, building project work plans, and working on long-term planning with department leaders. Alterman holds a BA in sociology from Johns Hopkins University.
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MDRC Publications
ToolkitLessons from Employers and Schools in NYC’s Original P-TECH Grades 9-14 Schools
July, 2022New York City P-TECH Grades 9-14 schools partner directly with employers to provide work-based learning experiences for students, including internships, mentoring, and job shadowing, that align with the career and technical education curricula the schools offer. This brief describes four important strategies for forming and maintaining productive partnerships.
ReportAn Analysis of Programs Serving Young People Not Connected to School or Work
March, 2022This report, a companion to an online compendium, offers findings from a systematic analysis of programs supporting young people who experience disconnection from school and work during the transition to adulthood. It focuses on services to help them reconnect to education, obtain employment, and advance in the labor market.
Issue FocusSupporting Teachers’ Use of Technology for Remote Instruction
August, 2020As the need for distance learning in some form continues due to COVID-19, lessons from an intervention that integrates technology coaching into a curriculum can help schools create support structures for teachers adopting new digital tools and could lead to significant gains in student learning.
ReportInterim Implementation and Impact Findings from New York City’s P-TECH 9-14 Schools
May, 2020This report evaluates a program focused on preparing students for college and career. Based on partnerships among high schools, community colleges, and employers, the program offers accelerated high school course work, early college, and work-based learning experiences. The findings suggest that students are meeting the benchmarks they need to succeed.
ReportSupporting Teachers with the Drive to Write Program
March, 2019Good writing is an important skill that students are increasingly required to master in high school. But how does a school cultivate good writing? An ambitious new program called Drive to Write is using technology, coaches for teachers, and data on student progress to help answer this question.
BriefLaunching the Drive to Write Program
January, 2018How do schools encourage students to write more and teachers to offer more comments on student writing? How can schools use technology more effectively to support this shift in instruction? What makes achieving both of these goals difficult? The Drive to Write program tackles these challenges.
BriefTeachers’ Voices on Professional Development
June, 2015Through the Innovative Professional Development (iPD) Challenge, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is helping school districts and networks redesign their professional development systems. This brief — the first in a series — introduces the case study component of MDRC’s evaluation and presents some early findings from interviews with teachers.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Amid modest increases in high school graduation rates for all students, disparities still exist for important student groups, such as students of color and students from low-income families. In response to this equity issue, there has been a growth in third-party “school support” organizations like Urban Assembly . Since 1997, Urban Assembly has supported New York City...
Rebecca Unterman, Kelly Granito, Jedediah J. Teres, Emma Alterman, Faith Lewis, Matthew MacFarlane, Barbara Condliffe, Sonia DrohojowskaXQ 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...
Rachel Rosen, Ivonne Garcia, D. Crystal Byndloss, Shelley Rappaport, Emma Alterman, Hannah Dalporto, Hannah PowerNew models of career and technical education ( CTE ) have expanded student choices and shifted towards high-quality, career-themed programs of study and pathways to careers. Advising within CTE programs plays a key role in guiding student pathway choices and ensuring that career information is received by all students, rather than a select few.
Many schools and...
The Reconnecting Youth project aims to understand systematically what programs and practices are available in the United States to support young people who experience disconnection from school and work during the transition to adulthood (typically defined as ages 16 to 24). It focuses specifically on services to help them reconnect to education, obtain employment, and...
Many high-need students do not learn to read well because they do not receive effective personalized literacy instruction during the early elementary grades. To address this, the data-driven A2 i Professional Support System was designed by and for teachers, and it has shown strong evidence of effectiveness. A2 i technology includes online adaptive assessments of...
Rachel Rosen, D. Crystal Byndloss, Sonia Drohojowska, Leigh Parise, Rebecca Unterman, Emma Alterman, Jedediah J. Teres, Michelle DixonThe idea for this high school model began in 2010 in New York City when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a public-private partnership of the New York City Department of Education, the City University of New York, the New York City College of Technology, and IBM to develop a new approach to secondary and postsecondary education. The result was P- TECH...
This study evaluates a new two-year intervention focused on student writing called Drive to Write. The intervention integrates technology coaching into a global history curriculum to create opportunities for focused student writing and revision and increased teacher feedback on writing.
While schools strive to integrate writing skills practice into multiple...
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...
This project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, provides research and evaluation support for the Innovative Professional Development (iPD) Challenge, which seeks to clarify the extent to which changes in school district professional development systems lead to different teacher experiences and measurable improvements in key teacher outcomes. The iPD...
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...