About MDRC
Lewy works in MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education, where she evaluates interventions aimed at improving academic and labor market outcomes for community college students. She primarily focuses on the implementation and impacts of programs designed for rural students, students with developmental education needs, and male students of color. She currently serves on the national leadership board of the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness. Prior to joining MDRC in 2020, she worked as a research assistant to the journalist Gail Sheehy, and was also an English tutor and a freelance editor. Lewy previously held internships at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity in Burlington, Vermont, and at Christel House Schools South Africa. She has a bachelor’s degree in community development and applied economics from the University of Vermont.
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MDRC Publications
BriefMay, 2022A large proportion of students in public colleges are assigned to developmental education, which is intended to prepare them for college-level courses. However, research suggests that colleges’ typical developmental education policies may hinder students’ academic progress. Here are three recommendations for reforming developmental education based on a decade of research.
BriefA Model for Postsecondary Career and Technical Education
April, 2022This brief highlights lessons from the City Colleges of Chicago Centers of Excellence model, which has redesigned each of the system’s seven campuses as a “college-to-career center” and consolidated academic programs in high-demand industries at particular campuses.
Issue FocusFebruary, 2022MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education spoke with Di Xu, associate professor at the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, to learn from her research on nondegree credentials: short-term training programs that purport to give students skills highly valued in the labor market.
Issue FocusJanuary, 2022Recent federal and state policies are creating momentum for combating climate change by tying a clean energy transition to job growth. MDRC and JobsFirstNYC convened 30 stakeholders from locations across the country to discuss how career and technical education and workforce development programs can train people for green careers.
Issue FocusNovember, 2021To learn more about how program designers, educators, and other stakeholders can learn from the past to build equitable career and technical education (CTE) programs today, MDRC’s Center for Effective CTE spoke with Dr. Eddie Fletcher, an associate professor in workforce development and education at The Ohio State University.
Issue FocusSeptember, 2021The COVID-19 pandemic exposed inequities in access to and success in career and technical education (CTE). This post summarizes a discussion among teachers and program coordinators about what has changed a year into remote instruction, and about how to make CTE programs more equitable now and when in-person instruction returns.
Issue FocusWhat COVID-19 Adaptations We Will Take with Us, and What We Will Gladly Leave Behind
September, 2021With the onset of the pandemic, MDRC implementation researchers halted travel to programs and transitioned their work to virtual modes. This blog post offers reflections on adaptations they made that are worth continuing post-pandemic and on the in-person practices they look forward to resuming.
Issue FocusAugust, 2021Recent federal policy supports creating middle-class jobs in the “green economy.” To better understand how community colleges can build programs that provide reliable growth trajectories for students in this field, MDRC talked with two practitioners about the North Carolina Community College System’s 10-year-old “Code Green” initiative.
Issue FocusJuly, 2021Career and technical education programs are trying to address challenges faced by disadvantaged students, particularly Black students and other students of color. Access is only part of the path to equity as these programs focus on inclusive workplace environments, meaningful mentorships, and language that emphasizes strengths rather than real or presumed deficits.
Issue FocusMay, 2021The COVID-19 pandemic forced leaders of the Male Student Success Initiative at the Community College of Baltimore County to create an entirely online environment for a formerly hands-on program. Here are some measures the program took to deepen its commitment to supporting and mentoring its students.
BriefWhat Colleges Need to Know About Multiple Measures Assessments
February, 2021Colleges often use standardized testing to determine whether incoming students need developmental courses. But those tests do not predict students’ college readiness accurately. This brief explains how the use of alternative multiple measures can improve placement decisions, increase college-level course pass rates, and boost progress toward graduation.
BriefPerspectives and Considerations for Supporting Movement Across Workforce and Academic Programs in Community Colleges
February, 2021Living-wage jobs increasingly require postsecondary education, though nonacademic career and technical education can also boost earning potential. But noncredit program benefits can be limited, so some community colleges are bridging the academic-nonacademic divide. This brief describes methods and strategies for connecting and promoting noncredit and credit pathways for students.
BriefJanuary, 2021This brief from the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness, a project of the Community College Research Center and MDRC, presents four case studies on how community college state systems changed course placement policies and supported new placement practices in the midst of the pandemic.
Issue FocusRapid Innovation and Ideas for the Future
September, 2020The pandemic has exacerbated postsecondary education issues in rural areas that have affected students and communities for decades, such as the lack of adequate broadband infrastructure. In response, educators are developing innovative strategies that may be applicable to all institutions, not just those with a preponderance of rural students.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Rural higher education has historically been neglected by the research community. There has been little evidence produced to inform the field of “what works” in rural colleges, what different sets of concerns rural students and their families face, or whether nationally recognized best practices are relevant for rural institutions. Homegrown, locally developed...
Frieda Molina, Rachel Rosen, Sonia Drohojowska, William Corrin, Gloriela Iguina-Colón, Erika B. Lewy, Hannah Dalporto, Elizabeth Zachry RutschowMotivated by a desire to address both education and wage disparities, policymakers, educators, employers, and philanthropists have increasingly begun to invest in new models of career and technical education ( CTE ) that are based on the premise that all students need postsecondary credentials to adapt to an increasingly complex labor market. No longer simply a stand-...
Dan Cullinan, Rashida Welbeck, Alyssa Ratledge, Tiffany Morton, Kriti Singh, Erika B. Lewy, Dorota RizikCollege students who place into developmental (remedial) education are substantially less likely to graduate than students who place into college-level courses. Most students are directed into developmental courses based on placement test scores. But large-scale studies have indicated that these test scores misplace substantial numbers of students — in other words, for...
Alexander Mayer, Melissa Boynton, Michelle Ware, John Diamond, Rebekah O'Donoghue, Edith Yang, Dorota Rizik, Erika B. LewyIntegrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) is an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which recently made its second large investment in 26 colleges and universities engaged in technology-mediated advising reform.
The iPASS initiative provides technology tools and data about students’ academic performance to both...