Policymakers talk about solutions, but which ones really work? MDRC’s Evidence First podcast features experts—program administrators, policymakers, and researchers—talking about the best evidence available on education and social programs that serve people with low incomes.

Latest Episode

Children’s early math skills are a strong predictor of later outcomes, like high school and college graduation rates, underscoring the long-term benefits of focusing on early math education.

States across the country have increasingly focused on early literacy, enacting laws that require screening for reading difficulties, and aligning classroom instruction with the science of reading. This momentum is now expanding to math education, although more gradually.

In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Shira Mattera, a senior research associate at MDRC, who is leading multiple studies looking at early math instruction and skills. They discuss evidence-based strategies that state education leaders can implement to strengthen early mathematics instruction and learning.

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In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with John Martinez, MDRC’s Vice President for Evidence to Practice, about the history of technical assistance at MDRC and its new comprehensive and innovative initiative, “Evidence to Practice.”

Leigh Parise talks with Jessa Valentine of Ascendium Education Group and MDRC researchers Frieda Molina and Kelsey Schaberg about the Economic Mobility Lab at MDRC and the Sector Training Evidence-Building Project —efforts that build evidence about sectoral training programs and address the challenges these programs face.

In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Elena Serna-Wallender, Senior Evidence to Practice Associate at MDRC, and Emily Dow, Assistant Secretary of Academic Affairs at the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), about their efforts to help colleges implement student supports in Maryland as part of the Expanding SUCCESS initiative.

Edith Yang, Senior Associate at MDRC, discusses some of the research questions that the evaluation of the Google Career Certificates Fund is trying to answer related to training accessibility and the economic mobility of participants.

Leah Nelson, then-research director at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and Sarah Picard, director of the MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research, discuss early findings of Project JEFF, which seeks to understand the impact of court debt in Jefferson County, Alabama.   

In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Alyssa Ratledge, research associate at MDRC, about the learning agenda of the new National Rural Higher Education Research Center.

Leigh Parise talks with Barbara Condliffe, senior research associate at MDRC, about early lessons from the Personalized Learning Initiative, which is supporting the expansion of high-dosage tutoring programs.

Leigh Parise talks with Nikki Edgecombe, senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center, and Michael Weiss, senior fellow at MDRC, about promoting equity in developmental education reform.

Leigh Parise talks with Tamara Johnson and Shondra Tobler from Per Scholas and MDRC’s Donna Wharton-Fields. They discuss their long-term research partnership aimed at helping Per Scholas improve its program and expand its reach.

Cheryl Ohlson, deputy chief of early childhood education for District of Columbia Public Schools, and Michelle Maier, MDRC senior associate, discuss the district’s adoption of an evidence-based, domain-specific curriculum for pre-K classrooms (that is, one that focuses on specific areas such as math and literacy).