Founded in 1974, MDRC is committed to improving the lives of people with low incomes. We design promising new interventions, evaluate existing programs, and provide technical assistance to build better programs.
MDRC develops evidence about solutions to some of the nation’s most difficult problems. Explore our projects and variety of products, including publications, videos, podcast episodes, and resources for researchers and practitioners.
In 2020, MDRC and its partners conducted a literature review and held a series of conversations on the subject of engaging fathers in fatherhood programs that included practitioners, fathers, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. This publication collects engagement approaches practitioners and other stakeholders have tried or are considering.
This brief prepared for the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness presents interim findings from a random assignment evaluation of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) program at four Texas community colleges. It also includes an exploratory analysis of the effectiveness of the program for various subgroups.
Grameen America provides microloans to women living in poverty seeking to launch or expand small businesses. The program resulted in a reduction of material hardship and an increase in credit scores, business ownership, business earnings, and nonretirement savings. It also improved participants’ feelings of overall financial well-being.
Drawing on lessons from the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) project, this guide provides practical advice on how child support agencies can apply principles of procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) to build trust, better engage participants, and create a more fair and effective process.
In this commentary originally published by Early Learning Nation, JoAnn Hsueh, director of MDRC’s Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area, describes three evidence-based strategies that can help increase child care workers’ opportunities for advancement and upward mobility.
A San Diego program used IPS to help people with a range of disabilities find employment. This report summarizes 15-month evaluation findings from an earlier report and presents new impact findings. Of note, the analysis found the program increased earnings by almost $4,000 over the two-year follow-up period.
An Analysis of Programs Serving Young People Not Connected to School or Work
This report, a companion to an online compendium, offers findings from a systematic analysis of programs supporting young people who experience disconnection from school and work during the transition to adulthood. It focuses on services to help them reconnect to education, obtain employment, and advance in the labor market.
This brief outlines how Head Start programs responded to the ever-evolving public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—shifting activities to virtual formats, adapting in-person activities to local restrictions, and maintaining connections with families and community providers.
The information technology (IT) sector has great potential to help workers with low incomes improve their prospects in the labor market. This review examines the IT training offered by an employment services provider in New York and the impact such training had on career advancement opportunities for program participants.
Building Better Evidence on Pre-K Programs by Assessing the Full Range of Children’s Skills
Recent research has highlighted a pattern of “fadeout” of positive academic effects of pre-K as children progress into elementary school. This brief looks at examples of less frequently measured types of skills that pre-K programs may help boost in the short term and sustain over the longer term.
As part of a research-practice partnership, the NYC Department of Education worked with MDRC to improve its outreach to families and its digital processes for middle school application during the pandemic. This brief describes what adaptations were made, how families reacted, and what lessons the experience offers for the future.
CDI has collaborated with two of MDRC’s long-standing program partners, Per Scholas and the Center for Employment Opportunities, to create and implement tools that can more fully capture participants’ lived expertise. This brief summarizes lessons learned from these partnerships.
MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education spoke with Di Xu, associate professor at the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, to learn from her research on nondegree credentials: short-term training programs that purport to give students skills highly valued in the labor market.
In this commentary originally published by The 74, Rachel Rosen, co-director of MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education, explains how effective CTE models can be adapted to prepare high school students for jobs in new industries that lower carbon emissions.
In this commentary originally published by New America, Samuel Maves and Meghan McCormick describe the lessons that state advocates and policymakers learned from implementing pre-K assessment systems. These lessons were discussed during an event cohosted by New America, the Alliance for Early Success, and MDRC.
Recent federal and state policies are creating momentum for combating climate change by tying a clean energy transition to job growth. MDRC and JobsFirstNYC convened 30 stakeholders from locations across the country to discuss how career and technical education and workforce development programs can train people for green careers.
This brief highlights key findings from the implementation of the TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) programs and offers considerations for practitioners involved in planning or implementing similar programs. The programs provided training for high-tech jobs as well as support services to people with barriers to training and employment.
Two experimental studies examined multiple measures assessment (MMA), in which colleges use alternative measures (like high school GPA) rather than just standardized test scores, to assign students to developmental or college-level courses. Students placed using MMA were more likely to complete college-level courses. This brief offers recommendations for other colleges.
MDRC’s Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) aims to help more low-income students and students of color graduate by combining proven components into an integrated three-year program. This brief describes the model, the study, and adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic, and offers some early findings.
MDRC hosts several blogs, including InPractice: Lessons for and from Practitioners, Ideas and Evidence 2021, the Implementation Research Incubator, and the Future of Career and Technical Education. Here are the top blog posts from 2021.