About MDRC
Lewy, who came to MDRC in 2020, works primarily on projects related to higher education and the criminal justice system. In higher education, she evaluates green jobs training programs and programs meant to improve labor market outcomes for students with developmental education needs. Her criminal justice research focuses on pretrial justice reform. Lewy works across policy areas at MDRC and leads an organization-wide effort to engage people with lived experience to advise MDRC research. Prior to joining MDRC, she worked as an editorial assistant and freelance editor. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in community development and applied economics.
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MDRC Publications
CommentaryDecember, 2022In this commentary originally published in Community College Daily, Erika Lewy, Susan Bickerstaff, and Katie Beal outline five evidence-based principles that college administrators can use to guide the reform of developmental (or remedial) education, a common roadblock to student success.
ReportOctober, 2022A review of impact and implementation studies from the past 10 years, this report summarizes what is known about how innovations in developmental education (that is, remedial college courses) can improve student outcomes. It also identifies five principles that are essential to successful reforms.
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
The College Completion Fund demonstrates renewed federal interest in increasing postsecondary students’ success and could provide significant funding for states and colleges to adopt evidence-based policies and practices.
As technology continues to advance rapidly, the labor market exhibits a growing need for more frequent and ongoing skill development. At the same time, employers in many fields encounter difficulties finding adequately trained workers to meet their needs. According to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor, aside from a temporary dip as...
MDRC is leading an evaluation of JPMorgan Chase’s Summer Youth Employment Program, a national program that aims to help economically disadvantaged and out-of-school youth enter the labor market and pursue economic mobility. MDRC will conduct semi-structured interviews with program staff at 27...
The City Colleges of Chicago have a unique, innovative way of providing students with the education and training employers require to get good-paying jobs that are in local demand: Each of the seven colleges in the system, which are spread geographically across the city of Chicago, is deemed a “Center of Excellence” and leads career and technical education for a...
Thanks mainly to state and city policy investing in the development of a green workforce, New York City hosts an emerging ecosystem of green jobs training providers, employers, and intermediaries.
Careers in the green economy are already providing good wages and opportunities for advancement and wage progression. These jobs can also lead to tangible...
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, 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...
Dan Cullinan, Rashida Welbeck, Alyssa Ratledge, Tiffany Morton, Erika B. Lewy, Dorota Biedzio Rizik, Stanley DaiCollege 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 Biedzio 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...