About MDRC
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MDRC Publications
ReportA Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the Male Student Success Initiative for Men of Color
September, 2023Research literature is rich with theories about the challenges faced by male students of color who strive to achieve college success and completion. This report provides the first causal estimates of the effects of a college program targeting male students of color on academic outcomes.
ReportFinal Report of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) Project
May, 2017The BIAS project tested behavioral interventions in child support, child care, and work support programs with nearly 100,000 low-income clients in eight human services agencies. Each site saw at least one significant, low-cost impact. The findings suggest that small environmental changes can enhance client-agency interactions and expanded behavioral strategies might help strengthen programs and policies.
TestimonyTestimony Submitted to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance
September, 2015This testimony presented by MDRC’s Alex Mayer to the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance identifies several areas as being worthy of innovation paired with rigorous evaluation, including year-round financial aid, Federal Work-Study, and “satisfactory academic progress” in the Pell Grant program.
TestimonySubmitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
September, 2015Following up on testimony delivered before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on August 5, 2015, Lashawn Richburg-Hayes submitted additional information on opportunities for innovation in financial aid and student support services in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
TestimonyPresented Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
August, 2015On August 5, Lashawn Richburg-Hayes testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on what research evidence suggests about the best ways to improve the academic success of low-income college students.
ReportInterim Findings from the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration in California
June, 2015This report presents early findings from a random assignment evaluation of performance-based scholarships targeting college-bound high school seniors in California. The scholarships were completely portable, meaning that a student could use them at any accredited, degree-granting college or university.
ReportDesigning Innovative Solutions for Programs Supported by the Administration for Children and Families
April, 2014This report describes three sites in the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project, which applies tools from behavioral economics to improve the well-being of low-income individuals and families — the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Child Support Division, the Illinois Department of Human Services, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
ReportA Technical Supplement to “Behavioral Economics and Social Policy”
April, 2014This technical supplement to an introductory report for the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project presents a description of behavioral interventions that have been commonly researched in studies.
ReportStudent Characteristics and Patterns of (Un)Affordability
February, 2014This paper reviews the literature on financial aid and college achievement, examines data from MDRC’s Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration to identify relationships between students’ financial aid and their persistence and academic achievement, and concludes with recommendations for how these collective findings should affect financial aid policy.
BriefInterim Findings from the PBS Demonstration
August, 2013Interim results suggest that performance-based scholarships improve students’ academic performance and increase the number of credits they earn. In some sites, the scholarships also appear to reduce student debt. In the one location for which data are available so far, the program increased the proportion of students earning a degree.
TestimonyOctober, 2011This brief summarizes results from performance-based scholarship programs in Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, and Ohio. These scholarships can move the dial on important markers of academic success for students, including credits attempted and earned and rates of full-time enrollment.
ReportEarly Impacts from the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration in New York
May, 2011Low-income adults needing remediation received a scholarship if they maintained at least part-time enrollment and met attendance and grade point average benchmarks. Early results show that the program modestly increased full-time enrollment and, among students who were eligible for summer funding, summer registration.
ReportFive Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges
February, 2011This interim report examines the experiences of the first 26 colleges to join the ambitious Achieving the Dream initiative. Launched by Lumina Foundation for Education in 2004, Achieving the Dream helps community colleges collect and analyze student performance data in order to build a “culture of evidence,” enabling the colleges to use that knowledge to develop programs to increase students’ academic success.
BriefAn Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration
October, 2009This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships — paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks — are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.
ReportEffects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents
January, 2009This report describes the impacts of a performance-based scholarship program with a counseling component on academic success and persistence among low-income parents. Students who participated in the program, which was operated at two New Orleans-area colleges as part of MDRC’s multisite Opening Doors demonstration, were more likely to stay in school, get higher grades, and earn more credits.
Working PaperRationale, Sites, and Research Design
May, 2008Launched in 2007 by MDRC and the National Center for Postsecondary Research, the Learning Communities Demonstration is testing models of this promising approach in six community colleges in five states. This report describes the research design, including information about the colleges and their models, the random assignment process, data sources, analysis plans, and reporting schedule.
Working PaperLessons from Research on Welfare Training Programs and Two Promising Community College Strategies
February, 2008This working paper, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, reviews what is known about education acquisition by low-wage workers and highlights promising strategies being tested at several community colleges.
ReportIncome Support Systems in Cuyahoga and Philadelphia, 2000 to 2005
March, 2007This report, part of MDRC’s Project on Devolution and Urban Change, tells the story of Cleveland’s and Philadelphia’s welfare systems in the early 2000s, a time marked by an economic downturn, state budget cuts, and welfare time limits.
ReportEarly Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents Attending Community College
May, 2006Funded by state welfare dollars, two community colleges in the New Orleans area offered performance-based scholarships and enhanced counseling to low-income parents, as part of MDRC’s Opening Doors demonstration. These early findings show the program had significant positive effects on academic achievement and rates of retention.
ReportA Study in Four Big Cities
A Technical ReportDecember, 2005This technical report describes food stamp caseload dynamics between January 1993 and December 2001 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Miami-Dade County, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
MethodologyEmpirical Guidance for Studies That Randomize Schools to Measure the Impacts of Educational Interventions
November, 2005This paper examines how controlling statistically for baseline covariates (especially pretests) improves the precision of studies that randomize schools to measure the impacts of educational interventions on student achievement.
ReportImplementation, Effects, and Experiences of Poor Families and Neighborhoods
August, 2005Welfare caseloads fell, employment increased, and neighborhood conditions improved in Los Angeles during a period of economic growth and welfare reform. However, most welfare recipients still remained poor, the concentration of poverty increased, and those who worked were usually in low-wage jobs without benefits.
ReportImplementation, Effects, and Experiences of Poor Families and Neighborhoods
June, 2004Welfare caseloads fell, employment increased, and social conditions generally improved in Miami-Dade County after the 1996 federal welfare reform law was passed, but the county’s welfare-to-work program was poorly implemented and unusually harsh.
ReportApril, 2004In MDRC’s study of over 160,000 single-parent welfare recipients, families who repeatedly return to welfare assistance—“cyclers”—were less disadvantaged in the labor market than long-term welfare recipients. At the same time, they were less able than short-term recipients to attain stable employment and to work without welfare.
ReportImplementation, Effects, and Experiences of Poor Families and Neighborhoods
October, 2003Based on a comprehensive body of evidence, this report from the Project on Devolution and Urban Change examines how changes in Pennsylvania’s welfare reform policies combined with a strong regional economy in the late 1990s to create substantial change in the welfare system in Philadelphia.
ReportFive-Year Results of a Program to Reduce Poverty and Reform Welfare
June, 2003This rigorous long-term evaluation reveals that building a safety net of financial supports for low-income parents who work improved the well-being of their children.
ReportImplementation, Effects, and Experiences of Poor Families and Neighborhoods
September, 2002This report from the Project on Devolution and Urban Change examines how welfare reform has played out in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland, based on a comprehensive body of evidence that includes administrative records, surveys, and ethnographic interviews.
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Other Publications
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Projects