Publications

How do Head Start programs coordinate family support services and are their practices aligned with each family’s needs and well-being? This report presents case studies of six programs across the country and explores service coordination from multiple perspectives—Head Start staff members, families, and local community service providers.

Complex administrative processes in community colleges can delay graduation. The OnPath project aims to help students navigate those processes more effectively and persist in college. This brief examines OnPath’s use of research evidence and staff members’ perspectives and hands-on knowledge to build and improve college systems that benefit all students.

In this commentary originally published in The Hechinger Report, Rebecca Davis and Shira Mattera describe how investing in universal early assessment is an important approach to help communities meet the specific needs of young children and their families.

To reach policymakers, practitioners, and other important decision makers, MDRC experts authored or coauthored nearly 20 commentaries on evidence-based solutions for a variety of venues last year, including Workshift, Route Fifty, The Crime Report, Community College Daily, the Albany Times-Union, and Early Learning Nation. Here’s a selection.

Schools have long struggled to reengage students who have poor attendance or who drop out—a situation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During 2021–2022, Communities In Schools introduced the Reengagement Coordinator Initiative, aimed at reengaging high school students who did not reenroll or were chronically absent.

An increased focus on staff well-being has been an unexpected benefit of the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. MDRC has helped program managers use a variety of tools to support their workers, including self-care plans that individuals can use to assess and address the stress of their jobs.

In place of bail, many jurisdictions are instead releasing people awaiting trial with varying levels of supervision in an effort to ensure that they appear in court and avoid new arrests. This brief compares the relative effectiveness of different intensities of pretrial supervision.

Many jurisdictions use electronic monitoring (the use of electronic devices to monitor people’s locations) and sobriety monitoring (drug and alcohol testing) as alternatives to pretrial detention. Drawing on nonexperimental analyses, this brief reports that neither form of monitoring improves court appearance rates or the avoidance of new arrests.

In 2022, MDRC posted more than 120 publications, videos, and podcast episodes—offering evaluation results, profiles of innovative programs, and evidence-backed advice for policymakers and practitioners. Here are 15 of the most popular.

This report from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools and MDRC examines the impact of 37 CTE-dedicated high schools in New York City on a range of outcomes, including academic engagement, high school graduation, and college enrollment.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Collaborative Pilot Initiative, a component of the TANF Data Innovation project, offered technical assistance and training to eight state and county TANF programs, profiled here, in the routine use of TANF and other administrative data to inform policy and practice.

Many community colleges have implemented interventions to help students persist in college and earn degrees. MDRC has studied many such interventions; several of them improved students’ academic outcomes, but the effects varied. This report synthesizes results from 30 studies MDRC has conducted of 39 interventions at 45 colleges.

In this commentary originally published in Community College Daily, Erika Lewy, Susan Bickerstaff, and Katie Beal outline five evidence-based principles that college administrators can use to guide the reform of developmental (or remedial) education, a common roadblock to student success.

The SUCCESS project aims to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students at community and broad-access colleges. This brief highlights the experiences of students 25 years or older in four SUCCESS colleges. The findings suggest how programmatic and institutional structures may promote or hamper student success for this population.

This paper, originally published in Evaluation Review, provides researchers with new information about the values of the key design parameters needed for planning randomized controlled trial evaluations of interventions in community colleges.

This report presents 20-year findings from an analysis of an employment-focused program offered to individuals who received welfare benefits. The program generally increased average earnings but did not change employment trajectories. The findings represent some of the first evidence on how these individuals fared in the labor market long term.

In this commentary originally published by Community College Daily, Alex Mayer explains which programs have been proven to help students complete college or increase their earnings.

Implementing institutional change is challenging. Achieving the Dream (ATD) provides expert guidance to promote positive change, close achievement gaps, and accelerate student success at community colleges, particularly among students of color and from low-income backgrounds. This brief summarizes the common drivers of institution-wide reforms at nine ATD colleges in Florida.

Policymakers, community colleges, and philanthropies have invested heavily in short-term or “stackable” noncredit career and technical education programs, despite a lack of evidence that the programs support positive career outcomes. A new MDRC study will explore how such programs influence outcomes including academic progression, program completion, employment, and earnings.

Millions of Americans have had their driver’s licenses suspended at some point because they have not paid legal fines and fees. This brief examines the causes, consequences, and scope of this practice, and highlights a program based in Florida that works to address the challenges of people affected by it.