About MDRC
Granito has worked as a qualitative researcher and a resource manager on a variety of projects at MDRC. She has designed and conducted implementation data collection and analysis, served as liaison to school research sites and led site visits, contributed to reports, and managed project contracts, budgets, and staffing plans. She currently serves as the implementation research manager on the evaluation of Teach for America’s redesigned Tulsa Institute, which introduced new teachers to culturally relevant pedagogies. She is also leading the qualitative research activities on the Investing in Innovation (i3) evaluation of the Success for All Middle School Math Program. She serves as the resource manager on several K-12 projects, including the Impact Evaluation of Academic Language Interventions, a five-year contract from the Institute of Education Sciences. Granito holds an MA in American studies from the George Washington University, where she concentrated on education systems and critical race theory, and a BA in secondary education from Western Michigan University. Before joining MDRC, Granito worked as a program specialist designing digital teaching resources at the National Endowment for the Humanities and as a middle and high school English language arts and social studies teacher in the greater New Orleans area.
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MDRC Publications
Issue FocusNovember, 2021Slingshot Memphis invited MDRC to assess its efforts to strengthen antipoverty organizations that work directly with Memphis families and individuals. This issue focus describes MDRC’s findings and presents suggestions it offered Slingshot to improve its processes, which may be useful to larger human services field.
ReportFindings from a Study of Teach For America’s Handoff Program
September, 2020This study evaluated TFA’s initiative to better align its regional in-service training during the school year with its national pre-service summer teacher training, which emphasized a productive learning environment and diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. Teachers who received more in-service training in those national components adopted more culturally relevant classroom practices.
ReportFindings from a Study of Teach For America’s Summer Institutes
March, 2019In summer 2016, TFA piloted a redesigned training model for its teachers that incorporated college- and career-ready standards and methods. This study examined how the new model was implemented at one TFA site and how it compared with the usual TFA training at other sites.
Issue FocusA “One-Page Protocol” Approach
November, 2018How can researchers increase the likelihood that focus groups produce information that addresses key implementation questions? The Implementation Research Incubator presents an example of a simple protocol designed to encourage conversational flow about a complex issue — cooperative learning — while helping the interviewers explore core topics in depth.
ReportA Report from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Evaluation
June, 2017PowerTeaching emphasizes cooperative learning to instruct middle school math and has shown strong evidence of effectiveness. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education funded an effort to scale up the program, and in 2012 MDRC began a multiyear evaluation of it. This report describes the evaluation and presents its findings.
ReportFinal Findings from the Communities In Schools Random Assignment Evaluation
April, 2017Communities In Schools (CIS) works to integrate a variety of support services for students to keep them on a path to graduation. This randomized controlled trial assessed the effects of one component of the CIS model — case management for high-risk students.
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Other Publications
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Projects
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...
Teach for America ( TFA ) is a national, externally validated program that recruits, selects, and trains new teachers, referred to as corps members, for placement in high-need urban and rural communities across the country, with the expectation that they put their students on the path to college and life success. TFA has received a Supporting Effective Educator...
While English language learners and disadvantaged native English speakers may have sufficient skills to engage in everyday conversation, many struggle with academic language, the more formal language typically used in school. In recent years, educators have linked lack of proficiency in academic language to concerns about students’ literacy and have hypothesized that...
Middle school is a crucial stage for math instruction because students must master the context needed for more advanced high school math. But middle school math achievement has been difficult to improve. While the mathematics performance of American students has improved in recent years it still remains unimpressive by international standards, and the steep decline in...
Every day, 7,000 students drop out of school. Among Latinos and African-Americans, the dropout rate is nearly 50 percent. Communities In Schools ( CIS ) works with low-income K-12 students in the nation’s poorest-performing schools. It seeks to reduce dropout rates through preventive support services like short-term counseling or annual health screenings for the entire...