South Carolina

Brief

Learning from the Communities In Schools Reengagement Coordinator Initiative

January, 2023

Schools have long struggled to reengage students who have poor attendance or who drop out—a situation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During 2021–2022, Communities In Schools introduced the Reengagement Coordinator Initiative, aimed at reengaging high school students who did not reenroll or were chronically absent.

Report

Lessons on Increasing College Completion from Six Talent Dividend Cities

December, 2017
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, Aurelia De La Rosa Aceves, Jessica Taketa

The Talent Dividend competition encouraged major metro areas to find ways to boost their proportions of college graduates. The effort suggests that cross-sector partnerships and interventions that ease students’ transitions to the next level of education hold promise in aiding credit attainment and narrowing achievement gaps between groups of students.

Issue Focus
April, 2017

Communities In Schools (CIS) works to integrate a variety of support services for students to keep them on a path to graduation. MDRC’s evaluation consisted of a quasi-experimental study of the whole model and a randomized controlled trial of one of its components — case management for students at higher risk.

Issue Focus

A Case Study of Communities In Schools

April, 2017
Leigh Parise, Farhana Hossain

Many students in high-poverty schools face serious challenges such as housing instability and hunger, and the stress in their daily lives can affect their school attendance and performance. CIS aims to address these challenges. This brief describes how the organization has used evaluation findings to enhance and modify its services.

Melissa Boynton, Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow

Postsecondary education has become a centerpiece strategy for improving America’s labor market. It is estimated that 60 percent of American jobs will require some form of postsecondary education by 2018, and those who have not earned a college degree are 55 percent more likely to be unemployed than those who have. As a result, stakeholders ranging from the White House...

Report

Final Report on the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

November, 2015
Alexander Mayer, Reshma Patel, Timothy Rudd, Alyssa Ratledge

Performance-based scholarships are designed to give students more money for college and to provide incentives for academic progress. This report analyzes data from rigorous evaluations of six different programs, in six states, with more than 12,000 students. The scholarship programs improved academic progress, including modest effects on degree completion.

Report

Implementation, Impacts, and Costs of the Reading Partners Program

March, 2015
Robin Tepper Jacob, Catherine Armstrong, Jacklyn Willard

One-on-one tutoring by volunteers improves the reading proficiency of struggling second- to fifth-graders, according to MDRC’s random assignment study. As a program staffed mostly by volunteers, Reading Partners is substantially less costly than other supplemental reading services typically offered to struggling readers.

Report

A Technical Assistance Guide for Developing and Implementing Performance-Based Scholarships

February, 2014
Rashida Welbeck, Michelle Ware, Oscar Cerna, Ireri Valenzuela

Drawing on the findings and experiences of two research demonstrations that tested the effectiveness of performance-based scholarships, this guide provides helpful information for colleges and scholarship-granting organizations on this type of aid, which can reduce the financial burden on low-income students while offering incentives for good academic progress.

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