Publications

In this commentary originally published in GovTech, Edith Yang explains how gathering and analyzing data are only two components of successful data projects. The right combination of people, perseverance, and project scoping are just as important.

In this essay, MDRC President Virginia Knox describes how MDRC and its partners are working with state welfare agencies to help them harness the power of their administrative data to better understand participants’ needs and to improve service delivery.

Some high schools are offering career and technical education pathways for students to develop skills needed for the “climate-ready” workforce. MDRC is learning from such schools and programs across the country, including the Green Tech Academy in Olathe, Kansas. This blog post describes the program.

In this commentary originally published in Inside Higher Ed, Sophia Sutcliffe, Dan Knox, and Marjorie Dorimé-Williams describe a new effort to understand the significant role faculty and staff play when students transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions.

U.S. community colleges—which disproportionately serve students from low-income backgrounds—have very low graduation rates. In response, three Ohio community colleges implemented programs based on the City University of New York’s successful Accelerated Study in Associate Programs. After six years, the programs had a positive impact on graduation and earnings.

The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) project integrated procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement at six child support agencies. This report finds that the PJAC intervention did not meet its primary goals of improving payment compliance and regularity.

The Tools for Postsecondary Schools interactive toolkit is designed to help staff members and administrators at two- and four-year colleges use evidence-based practices to support students. It draws on over 20 years of MDRC research and technical assistance and can help practitioners at any stage in the program-development process.

Home visiting programs, which improve children’s development and strengthen caregivers’ and families’ well-being, faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines a program that provided psychotherapeutic, parent-child services during the pandemic and the effects of delivering those services online or in a hybrid format at that time.

California State University recently decided not to proceed with a proposal that would have required students to take an additional year of high school math, science, or other quantitative reasoning course for admissions. This commentary describes how MDRC’s analysis of the proposed policy helped inform that decision.

Only a fraction of community college students who plan to transfer to a four-year institution actually do. The Texas Transfer Grant Pilot Program was launched to improve transfer rates and bachelor’s degree attainment. It increased the proportion of students who enrolled in a Texas public four-year institution.

The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest over the last few years has been referred to as the “dual pandemics.” These challenges have contributed to startling college enrollment declines for men of color. This brief shares four strategies that colleges and universities can employ to better support them.

Twenty-first-century skills (also known as noncognitive, employability, or soft skills) are increasingly viewed as essential for favorable outcomes in both education and employment. This infographic outlines practical considerations and recommendations for developing and implementing soft-skills programs, curricula, and instruction in a postsecondary setting.

Roca Baltimore works with young men who have been involved in the justice system and who are at high risk of violence. This report draws on interviews with participants to present a picture of the men Roca Baltimore serves and the ways it works with them.

This document outlines design parameters for child assessment solutions that meet outstanding needs of the early childhood education field. It prioritizes the experiences, strengths, and needs of pre-K educators, families, and children whose perspectives are less often elevated in the design, creation, and validation of measurement and assessment tools.

The Bridge to Finish campaign aims to meet students’ basic needs at nine community colleges and one four-year institution in Washington State. This issue focus describes some features of the Bridge to Finish model that may be helpful to other state systems hoping to implement similar basic-needs programs.

Quality improvement in early care and education often relies on annual classroom observations. This study examined biweekly ratings of classroom quality by teachers’ coaches over six months and found that quality varied over time. The findings suggest that the timing and number of quality ratings should inform program improvement decisions.

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.