About MDRC
Alonzo works in MDRC’s Postsecondary Education policy area, where he focuses on evaluations of comprehensive student support programs aimed at improving community college persistence and graduation rates. Prior to joining MDRC in 2018, Alonzo held an undergraduate public policy fellowship in the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) program as well as two research fellowships at John Jay College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political economy.
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MDRC Publications
BriefInterim Impacts of the Texas Transfer Grant Pilot Program on Student Transfer
March, 2023Only a fraction of community college students who plan to transfer to a four-year institution actually do. The Texas Transfer Grant Pilot Program was launched to improve transfer rates and bachelor’s degree attainment. It increased the proportion of students who enrolled in a Texas public four-year institution.
Issue FocusInsights from MDRC’s 2020 Gueron Scholars Program
November, 2020Can hands-on internships be successfully converted into all-virtual programs in the age of COVID-19? Here are some lessons that MDRC learned when it decided to transform its summer internship into a virtual learning opportunity, plus tips for organizations considering such an approach.
ReportAn Independent Evaluation of the National Study of Learning Mindsets
November, 2019One type of intervention to help students navigate the tricky transition to ninth grade communicates to them that their brains can grow “stronger.” This evaluation of one such intervention finds that it changed students’ beliefs and attitudes and produced impacts on their average academic performance.
Issue FocusApril, 2019This evaluation examines a “growth mindset” intervention for ninth-graders as they make the transition to high school. It aims to boost students’ ability to meet challenges and persist in school by demonstrating that academic setbacks do not indicate poor intelligence ― with the goal of enhancing academic resilience and, ultimately, performance.
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Other Publications
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Projects
While more than three-fourths of community college students plan to transfer to a four-year institution to obtain a bachelor’s degree, only about one-third of them actually do transfer. And students from low-income backgrounds were only half as likely as their peers from higher-income backgrounds to have transferred to a four-year institution after six years.
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A college education can be a critical step towards attaining economic mobility, in part because it can translate to higher earnings. But there are differences in the benefits that accrue to Black, Latinx and White graduates. Various factors drive racial wage and income gaps, including occupational segregation, biases in who gets called back for job interviews,...
Alexander Mayer, Michelle Ware, Frieda Molina, Hannah Dalporto, Andrea Vasquez, Susan Scrivener, John Diamond, Dorota Biedzio Rizik, Rashida Welbeck, Sophia Sutcliffe, Clinton Key, Melissa Boynton, Austin Slaughter, Erick Alonzo, Kalito Luna, Xavier Alemañy, Melissa WestIncome share agreements ( ISA s) are designed to help students pay for and attend postsecondary education and career training programs. With an ISA , students receive financial support to help cover the cost of their education and, in return, agree to pay a fixed percentage of their future income over a predetermined time period. ISA s are gaining popularity as an...
The transition into high school is a volatile time for adolescents and a precarious point in the course of their education. Students who successfully navigate this transition and pass their ninth-grade classes are far more likely to graduate from high school with their peers and attend college than those who fail courses in the ninth grade.
The growing...