Every other year, MDRC publishes a corporate report that highlights what we’re doing to accomplish our mission of finding solutions to some of the most difficult problems facing the nation — from reducing poverty and bolstering economic self-sufficiency to improving public education and college graduation rates.

As MDRC President Gordon Berlin writes in our new corporate report:

MDRC was founded by a consortium of public and private funders in 1974…to develop and test promising new approaches rigorously before they became public policy, evaluate existing programs to learn what was and was not working, and delve into the how and why of program effectiveness. The goal always has been to apply the knowledge we develop to improve both policy and on-the-ground practice — and help take effective programs to a large scale.

MDRC continues to be at the forefront of generating evidence that meets the needs of decision makers. In just the last few years we have evaluated education reforms that double completion rates for community college students and that increase graduation and college attendance rates for students who attend small public high schools. We have seen a model employment program we developed for public housing residents replicated with new federal funding. And we have designed or launched pilot tests of innovative new programs: an enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit for single workers, promising occupation-focused GED instructional reforms, and a pre-math intervention for preschoolers, among others….

….The stakes are high: The nation’s slow recovery from the Great Recession, increased inequality, and reduced social and economic mobility all mean that the need for evidence-based solutions has never been greater. Real progress in combating poverty and its associated ills depends on knowing reliably what is and is not working. MDRC remains dedicated to developing the best evidence to help policymakers and practitioners improve the lives of low-income individuals, families, and children.