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 this blog post published by the National College Attainment Network, MDRC’s Colin Hill describes the findings from MDRC’s recent evaluation of the City University of New York’s ASAP student success program at three Ohio community colleges.
This brief compares models used to predict participants’ success in career pathways programs. While complex models may be more accurate, they may also come with increased costs and racial biases. The study team explores these trade-offs.
Final Report on the Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF) Study
This report summarizes activities in a study designed to build evidence on promising strategies to improve enrollment and participation in fatherhood programs. Programs iteratively implemented and assessed such strategies in three areas: outreach, peer mentoring, and coaching.
In 2014, HUD expanded Jobs Plus, a rigorously tested model offering rent incentives and on-site work support to public housing residents. The first three groups to enroll show no evidence of higher employment or earnings during the early years, potentially due to low participation levels and implementation challenges.
Generation Work aims to help more young people—particularly those of color from low-income families—succeed in today’s job market. This Issue Focus highlights promising strategies that the five partnerships implementing the initiative have pursued to foster awareness of racial equity and inclusion among their staff and change organizational practices.
Evidence from Acelero Learning Head Start Programs
There is a lack of consistent evidence on the extent to which the pandemic affected preschool-age children. This brief summarizes the initial results from a study led by MDRC that is examining the post-pandemic language, literacy, math, and executive functioning skills of children enrolled in Acelero Learning programs.
In this commentary originally published in Route Fifty, Mervett Hefyan and Meghan McCormick discuss three ways states can strengthen home visiting services to address the effects of the pandemic on young children and to boost parental health as well.
How Fatherhood Programs Used Learning Cycles in Efforts to Improve Participation Outcomes
In rapid learning cycles, programs try a new approach, see how well it works, make modifications to strengthen it, and then try it again. This brief illustrates how 10 fatherhood programs used learning cycles to evaluate one of three promising approaches to engaging men in their services.
The Jobs Plus demonstration aimed to increase economic empowerment and mobility for public housing residents through on-site employment services, rent-based work incentives, and supportive work activities. Sites that fully implemented the model saw long-term positive employment and earnings effects, but negative effects were observed in sites that did not.
Unemployment among young people is well above the national average. Among Black young adults, it is even higher. Generation Work aims to address this inequity by improving how local workforce development systems serve this population. This report examines the first five years of the initiative in five cities.
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.
How a Career Academy Is Training Students for the Sustainable Economy
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.
Six-Year Findings from the ASAP Ohio Demonstration
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.
Effects of the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration
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.
How Agencies in the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration Continued Their Work After Research Ended
The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt project integrated procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement at six child support agencies. After the study ended, the agencies could determine how they wished to continue to use procedural justice principles. This brief describes how they did so.
MDRC is partnering with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to provide information about evidence-based programs backed by past research to the Student Success Program Inventory, an inventory of existing student success programs in Texas. This brief summarizes some of the information they will use in that effort.
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.
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.