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This paper analyzes variation in the medium-term effects of the oversubscribed Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program. The relatively large enrollment effects suggest that more can be learned about how the quality of the environment in kindergarten through third grade affects students’ prekindergarten experience.
This research report evaluates tools for assessing skills that are important predictors of the reading gap that may emerge in later years. It reviews the measures on a set of logistical and psychometric criteria relevant for three purposes: identifying delays; measuring individual differences and change; and informing teaching and learning.
Implementing Individual Placement and Support in a Workforce Setting
Breaking Barriers was a San Diego-based program that provided employment services to low-income individuals with a range of disabilities or other health conditions. Preliminary analyses based on a survey found that the program did not have an impact on the primary outcomes measured — employment, length of employment, and total earnings — during a 15-month follow-up period.
Final Impacts and Costs of the Los Angeles County Transitional Subsidized Employment Program
Los Angeles County tested two different models of subsidized employment for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients: one subsidizes the wages of individuals placed at employers in the nonprofit or public sector, and the other offers wage subsidies to for-profit employers. This report offers findings from implementation, impact, and cost studies.
Training Approaches Applied in the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) Demonstration
The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) project integrates procedural justice principles (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement at six child support agencies. This brief, intended for child support practitioners and administrators, describes the specialized training provided to staff members at the six participating agencies.
What Do We Know and What Are We Learning?
There is growing evidence that alignment between preschool and elementary school can help sustain the learning gains that children make in preschool. A new policy brief examines two large-scale, multiyear projects seeking to build rigorous evidence about the promise of aligning instruction from preschool through third grade.
Introducing the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Project
Procedural justice centers on the idea that individuals’ perception of the fairness of a process determines how they respond to it. In this random assignment demonstration, child support programs are applying this principle to reframe their work with families as a respectful, problem-solving endeavor.
In the first year after random assignment, welfare recipients who participated in Minnesota’s subsidized employment program were more likely than control group members to have been employed; this modest effect continued after the subsidies ended.
Engagement in New York City’s Kindergarten Application
Parents applying to kindergarten today must follow multiple steps. Identifying families who do not apply can help a school system improve its application process and can help it target families who need support. MDRC partnered with the New York City Department of Education to conduct this sort of diagnosis.
Subsidized jobs programs seek to increase employment and earnings among individuals who have not been able to find jobs on their own. This report presents the perspectives of participants of 11 such programs. Although there were successes, the majority could not translate their experiences into unsubsidized work.
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