About MDRC
Rappaport has worked as a qualitative researcher on a variety of projects since joining MDRC. She is currently directing the Networks for School Improvement study. Her prior work included directing two Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant studies of Teach for America; working on two Investing in Innovation (i3) expansion studies, including Success for All: An Evaluation of the Investing in Innovation Scale-Up, and Scaling Up the Success for All Middle School Math Program, which she managed; and three studies of the Academy high school model: the Ninth Grade Academy study, the Career Academies project, and the Academy of Engineering formative evaluation. Rappaport has also been on the operations side of programs, including recruitment and site development for four random assignment evaluations: Academic Language Interventions, the Academy high school model (including the Ninth Grade Academy study, the Career Academies project, and the Academy of Engineering formative evaluation), the Reading Professional Development Impact Study, and the Math Professional Development Impact Study. Before joining MDRC, Rappaport worked for the New York State Education Department’s Bilingual Office and for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she researched how bilingual education was being implemented in New York City. For 11 years prior to that, she was a National Board-certified elementary school teacher. Rappaport received a master of public administration degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.
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MDRC Publications
ReportThe Experiences of Five Programs
August, 2022This report documents the experiences of five programs that integrate employment services into treatment and recovery programs for people with substance use disorder. It draws on interviews with managers and direct service staff members to describe the experiences of programs in relation to critical aspects of program design and implementation.
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 Report from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Evaluation
September, 2015This final report on the scale-up of Success for All, funded by a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, examines the implementation, impact, costs, and expansion of this whole-school reading reform. It finds that second-graders in schools using the program outperformed their control-group counterparts on a measure of phonics skills.
ReportThe Success for All Model of School Reform
July, 2014Success for All, a whole-school reading reform, received a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up grant in 2010 to expand to additional elementary schools. This report examines the program’s implementation and the impacts in 2012-2013, the second year of operation, on early reading skills.
ReportEarly Findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Scale-Up
October, 2013Success for All, a whole-school reading reform, received a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up grant in 2010 to expand to additional elementary schools. This report examines the program’s implementation and its impact in 2011-2012, the first year of operation, on kindergartners’ early reading.
ReportJune, 2013Many students lose their way academically in ninth grade, never recover, and never graduate high school. Ninth Grade Academies aim to ease the transition into high school by creating smaller learning communities for ninth-graders. This report evaluates one urban school district’s effort to implement this complex reform districtwide.
ReportSuggestive Evidence from Three Urban School Districts
December, 2007Does providing instruction-related professional development to school principals set in motion a chain of events that can improve teaching and learning in their schools? This report examines professional development efforts by the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Learning in elementary schools in Austin, St. Paul, and New York City.
ReportDesign Principles for a Study on Teacher Incentives
February, 2006This paper, produced by MDRC and the Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University, describes design principles for a study about the use of incentives to recruit and retain high-quality teachers for underperforming schools.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Megan Millenky, Lily Freedman, Caroline Mage, Douglas Phillips, Kyla Wasserman, Emily Brennan, Susan Scrivener, Viktoriya Syrov, Shelley RappaportA variety of organizations have developed a wide range of programs and services tailored towards addressing the health, economic success, and broader well-being of individuals with substance use disorders. Individuals with a substance use disorders often experience barriers that make finding and maintaining stable employment a challenge, a problem that was only...
William Corrin, Barbara Condliffe, Marie-Andrée Somers, Susan Sepanik, Shelley Rappaport, Margaret Hennessy, Hannah Power, Elizabeth Ederer, Julia Walsh
MDRC, in collaboration with RAND Corporation, Digital Promise, Westat, and Public Strategies, is conducting a large-scale, national evaluation project, the ReSolve Math Study, funded by the...Rachel Rosen, Ivonne Garcia, D. Crystal Byndloss, Shelley Rappaport, Emma Alterman, Hannah Dalporto, Hannah Power, Crystal NuñezNew models of career and technical education (CTE) have expanded student choices and shifted towards high-quality, career-themed programs of study and pathways to careers. Advising within CTE programs plays a key role in guiding student pathway choices and ensuring that career information is received by all students,...
Megan Millenky, Dan Bloom, Susan Scrivener, Charles Michalopoulos, Dina A. R. Israel, Johanna Walter, Lauren Cates, Sally Dai, Caroline Mage, Emily Marano, Viktoriya Syrov, Douglas Phillips, Kyla Wasserman, Lily Freedman, Osvaldo Avila, Emily Brennan, Jillian Verrillo, Gilda Azurdia, Frieda Molina, Shelley Rappaport, Clinton Key, Nandita Verma, Cynthia Miller, Jared Smith, Shawna Anderson, Kelsey Schaberg, Caitlin Anzelone, James A. Riccio, Keri West, Caroline Schultz, Ethan Feldman
Many Americans struggle in the labor market even when overall economic conditions are good. Unemployment is persistently high for some demographic groups and in certain geographic areas, and a large proportion of...
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...
Under-resourced students will have a steep road ahead as they master new Common Core standards. Schools will also face the challenge of finding sufficient resources to deliver higher-level content in effective, engaging ways. Out-of-school-time (OST) programs, particularly those focused on academic performance, could be one way to provide...
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...
Improving the reading performance of at-risk elementary students is one of the greatest challenges confronting American education. Success for All, a program aimed at ensuring that every child learns to read throughout the elementary grades, was one of the most carefully evaluated approaches to improving reading among high-poverty elementary school students at the time...
A solid understanding of rational numbers — fractions, decimals, ratios, and proportions and percents — is necessary for student success in algebra and beyond. Yet, decades of research on student achievement show that students struggle with these concepts. Seventh grade is one of the last chances for students to receive formal instruction in rational numbers. While it...
The transition into high school is a volatile time for adolescents and a precarious point in the educational pipeline. Evidence shows ninth grade to be one of the leakiest junctures in this pipeline. MDRC’s research in urban districts suggests that as many as 40 percent of students fail to get promoted from ninth to tenth grade on time, and...
It is important that children who are learning to read be exposed to high-quality, research-based curricula, but it is also essential that teachers be well versed in the instructional practices that promote early literacy (see the description of Reading First for more on this topic). Many educators and...