About MDRC
Since joining MDRC in 2014, Drohojowska has been involved in project management and research for several large-scale projects. As the lead resource manager for the K-12 Education policy area, she develops, maintains, and monitors work plans, expenditures, and budgets; communicates with important partners and funders; and supports the development of new projects. She currently serves as the resource manager for the study of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior as well as several other evaluations. In this role she works with the project directors and task leaders on the day-to-day management of projects and serves as a liaison to funding agencies, subcontractors, and other outside partners. Drohojowska also plays a substantive role in several projects focused on career and technical education, including YouthForce NOLA and the P-TECH 9-14 evaluation. On YouthForce NOLA, a project that promotes strong career and technical programs and work-based learning in New Orleans charter high schools, she serves as the project manager and lead implementation researcher. Before joining MDRC, Drohojowska served as a project manager and external relations leader for Say Yes to Education, a college-access organization. She received a BA in international relations from Boston College.
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MDRC Publications
Working PaperA Literature Review
October, 2017Examining the scholarly literature published since a seminal review in 2000, this working paper discusses the principles that underlie project-based learning, how it has been used in K-12 settings, the challenges teachers have confronted in implementing it, and what is known about its effectiveness in improving students’ learning outcomes.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Motivated by a desire to address both education and wage disparities, policymakers, educators, employers, and philanthropists have increasingly begun to invest in new models of career and technical education ( CTE ) that are based on the premise that all students need postsecondary credentials to adapt to an increasingly complex labor market. No longer simply a stand-...
Even as employers need skilled workers in order to grow and compete in the global economy, too many young Americans are shut out. Lack of opportunity, the cost of college, and a lingering stigma attached to career and technical education ( CTE ) prevents high school and community college students from acquiring the education, credentials, and skills they need to get...
D. Crystal Byndloss, Rachel Rosen, Sonia Drohojowska, Leigh Parise, Rebecca Unterman, Emma Alterman, Jedediah Teres, Michelle DixonThe idea for this high school model began in 2010 in New York City when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a public-private partnership of the New York City Department of Education, the City University of New York, the New York City College of Technology, and IBM to develop a new approach to secondary and postsecondary education. The result was P- TECH...
Apprenticeship programs have been more limited in the United States than they have been in many European countries, both in the numbers of individuals and the number and type of employers who participate in them. Only a few thousand apprenticeship programs are registered with the U.S. Department of Labor and these are mostly in construction and trades. This situation...
Career-pathways models designed to prepare high school students for success in college and careers are proliferating in school districts around the country. Each typically includes a sequence of career/technical education courses in a broad career theme such as health or computer science. Some initiatives also offer work-based learning experiences for students, a...
JoAnn Hsueh, Sharon Huang, Sharon Rowser, Meghan McCormick, Michelle Maier, Rebecca Unterman, Desiree Principe Alderson, Barbara Condliffe, Jocelyn Page, Amena Sengal, Sonia Drohojowska, Ilana Blum, Marissa Strassberger, Marie-Andrée Somers, Noemi Altman, Alexandra Bernardi, Mirjana Pralica, Mervett HefyanWith broad support across the political spectrum, states and localities throughout the country are expanding preschool programs for low-income children. While the public will is strong and the experience to date is encouraging, there is a need for firmer evidence on the most cost-effective ways to produce lasting impacts for children, especially when programs operate...
Fred Doolittle, Mark van Dok, Pei Zhu, Barbara Condliffe, Sonia Drohojowska, Emma Alterman, Osvaldo Avila, Jedediah Teres, Hannah PowerToo often, elementary school students lack the behavioral and social skills necessary to focus on academics and achieve in school. Without proper support, teachers inevitably spend far too much time managing their students’ behavior and too little time actually teaching. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior ( MTSS -B) is not a specific model but a compilation...