Texas

Report

Highlights from the Jobs Plus Pilot Program Evaluation

September, 2017
Betsy L. Tessler, Nandita Verma, Jonathan Bigelow, M. Victoria Quiroz Becerra, Kristin P. Frescoln, William M. Rohe, Michael D. Webb, Amy T. Khare, Mark L. Joseph, Emily K. Miller

Jobs Plus promotes employment among public housing residents through employment services, rent rule changes that provide incentives to work, and community support for work. Within the first 18 months, all nine public housing agencies in this evaluation had begun structuring their programs, building partnerships, and implementing the model’s core components.

MyGoals for Employment Success is a new workforce program intended to help recipients of federal housing subsidies who are not employed find work, build careers, and advance toward greater self-sufficiency. The program incorporates an innovative employment coaching model that is informed by current literature in behavioral psychology on executive functioning skills and...

Report

Interim Findings on Aid Like A Paycheck

June, 2017
Evan Weissman, Oscar Cerna, Dan Cullinan, Amanda Baldiga

This study examines whether an alternative approach to distributing financial aid — in biweekly payments instead of one or two lump sums — can improve outcomes for low-income community college students. After one semester, the policy reduced students’ debt and use of federal loans but showed little consistent evidence of academic effects.

Brief

Early Findings from a Study of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways

May, 2017
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, John Diamond, Elena Serna-Wallender

A promising new community college intervention involves a revised developmental math course that emphasizes statistical and quantitative reasoning skills to align with students’ fields of study. In a random assignment evaluation at four schools in Texas, students report a qualitatively different experience with math instruction.

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.

Infographic

Incremental Delivery of Financial Aid to Promote College Success

December, 2015

This infographic explains MDRC’s large-scale test of whether an innovative approach to distributing financial aid – through bi-weekly payments, like a paycheck, instead of one or two lump-sum payments – can improve academic outcomes for low-income college students.

Pages