Counseling/Advising

Brief

Evidence Underlying Programs and Policies That Work

December, 2019

This brief, a collaboration with Results for America, identifies the major categories of career and technical education within the nation’s secondary and postsecondary education systems and describes the existing research on whether these programs are achieving desired outcomes for students.

Report

A Feasibility Study of the Bridges to Pathways Program

September, 2019
Kyla Wasserman, Johanna Walter, Beata Luczywek, Hannah Wagner, Cindy Redcross

In a program to reduce criminal justice involvement, participants received mentoring, case management, subsidized internships, and the opportunity to earn a high school credential. The program reduced the arrest rate for felonies and violent crimes but did not affect overall rates of arrest or incarceration, educational or training certification, or employment.

Issue Focus
November, 2019

MDRC’s Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) aims to help more low-income students and students of color graduate by combining proven components into an integrated three-year program. This brief provides an early look at participating states and colleges and how they have aligned SUCCESS with existing initiatives.

Report

Findings from a National Survey and Interviews with Postsecondary Institutions

November, 2019
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, Maria Scott Cormier, Dominique Dukes, Diana E. Cruz Zamora

This report, based on a national survey of two- and four-year colleges, examines the current state of practices in developmental education assessment, placement, instruction, and support services offered to students. Reform efforts have accelerated, but new practices still reach less than half of students.

Infographic

Lessons from the Los Angeles College Promise Program

September, 2019
Andrea Vasquez, Madeline Price

The Los Angeles College Promise aims to increase college access and success by offering support services and a scholarship that covers tuition and fees for two years. This brief highlights how it has established a cycle of continual program improvement that uses insights from behavioral science and involves the students themselves.

Report

Studying Enhancements to Colleges’ iPASS Practices

July, 2019
Alexander Mayer, Hoori Santikian Kalamkarian, Benjamin Cohen, Lauren Pellegrino, Melissa Boynton, Edith Yang

Frequent advising seems to help struggling students, but advisers’ time is limited; could technology make a difference? This study examines the effects of three institutions’ efforts to expand the use of advising technologies and to use administrative and communication strategies to increase student contact with advisers.

Issue Focus

Reflections on Running the College Match Program

July, 2019

In this commentary originally published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, MDRC’s Crystal Byndloss offers lessons from our College Match demonstration in Chicago and New York, which helped college-ready, low-income high school students choose selective colleges that matched their academic profiles, financial considerations, and personal needs.

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