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Brief
December 2022

A Study of Achieving the Dream in Florida

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.

Report
December 2022

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.

Commentary
December 2022

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.

Brief
December 2022

Exploring the Experiences of Students Ages 25 and Older

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.

Methodological Publication
December 2022

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.

Report
December 2022

Portland, Oregon, Early 1990s

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.

Commentary
November 2022

In this commentary originally published in the Albany Times-Union, Rachel Rosen makes the case that New York State should build on its investment in P-TECH 9-14 schools to help young people launch careers in the growing green-energy economy.

Report
November 2022

How an Additional Quantitative Reasoning Course Could Affect Student Access and Success

This report studies a proposal to add one year of high school quantitative reasoning coursework to California State University’s admissions requirements. It analyzes how the proposal, had it been accepted, could have affected students’ access to and success at the university, particularly for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

Brief
November 2022

This profile provides background information on an evaluation of three programs in Illinois, New Hampshire, and North Carolina that provide employment services to individuals with a range of mental health and substance use disorders. The programs are being implemented as part of MDRC’s Building Evidence on Employment Strategies project.

Brief
November 2022

Promising Interim Findings from the Viking ROADS Randomized Controlled Trial

In community colleges nationwide, underrepresented students and students from families with low incomes face many barriers to academic success. In 2018, Westchester Community College in New York State launched Viking ROADS to help students overcome those obstacles. Despite the pandemic, the program had positive effects on enrollment and credits earned.

Brief
November 2022

Youth Perspectives on Navigating Homelessness and the Labor Market

Young adults facing homelessness are a growing demographic. Covenant House is a nonprofit organization that provides housing and supportive services for young people facing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. MDRC and Covenant House partnered to explore the perspectives and experiences of those young people as they navigate the workforce.

Issue Focus
November 2022

A New Study Will Explore the Practice and Promise of Noncredit Workforce Training Programs

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.

Brief
November 2022

Fines, Fees, and License Suspensions

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.

Issue Focus
November 2022

Risk factors such as housing instability and untreated mental conditions are prevalent among people who come in contact with the criminal justice system, so some jurisdictions are trying to connect them with social services. This blog post provides several examples of these support-oriented pretrial approaches and research on their effectiveness.

Report
November 2022

A Toolkit for State and Local Agencies on How to Access, Link, and Analyze Unemployment Insurance Wage Data

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies are increasingly focused on using administrative data to assess how well programs are working and to inform policies and best practices. This toolkit was created to help TANF professionals develop more robust practices using employment data for program monitoring, reporting, and evaluation.

Brief
October 2022

How Community Health Workers Help Navigate Reentry

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are critical to Los Angeles County’s Reentry Intensive Case Management Services program, which assists clients following incarceration or probation by connecting them to services. This brief describes CHWs’ role, outlines their strategies, and offers insights for incorporating “lived experience” into their approach to helping clients.

Issue Focus
October 2022

In this blog post originally published by New America, Head Start educators report on challenges they’ve faced collecting and using assessments and identify opportunities for improvement.

Methodological Publication
October 2022

Lessons Learned from Career Pathways and Child First

Social services programs are increasingly looking to forecast which participants are likely to reach major milestones. Some explore advanced predictive modeling, but the Center for Data Insights (CDI) has found that such methods come with trade-offs. This post outlines CDI’s approach to predictive analytics, using illustrations from two studies.

Issue Focus
October 2022

The Detroit Promise Path combines a tuition-free scholarship with additional forms of support, such as a campus coach and personalized communications, to keep students on track to graduate. After four years, the program helped students stay enrolled in school but had no impact on degrees earned.

Report
October 2022

A review of impact and implementation studies from the past 10 years, this report summarizes what is known about how innovations in developmental education (that is, remedial college courses) can improve student outcomes. It also identifies five principles that are essential to successful reforms.