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Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading
An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Michael J. Weiss, Mary G. Visher, and Heather Wathington with Jed Teres and Emily Schneider.
A random assignment study of learning communities that linked a developmental reading course and a “college success” course finds that faculty collaboration and curricular integration increased over time. Overall, the program had no impact on students’ academic success, but evidence suggests that it had some positive effects for the last cohort of students in the study.
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Transforming the High School Experience
How New York City’s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates
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2010. Howard S. Bloom, Saskia Levy Thompson, and Rebecca Unterman, with Corinne Herlihy and Collin F. Payne.
Taking advantage of lottery-like features in New York City’s high school admissions process, this study provides rigorous evidence that new small public high schools are narrowing the educational attainment gap and markedly improve graduation prospects, particularly for disadvantaged students.
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How Effective Are Different Approaches Aiming to Increase Employment Retention and Advancement?
Final Impacts for Twelve Models
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2010. Richard Hendra, Keri-Nicole Dillman, Gayle Hamilton, Erika Lundquist, Karin Martinson, and Melissa Wavelet.
This report presents the final implementation and impact findings for 12 programs in the national Employment Retention and Advancement project, sponsored by the federal Administration for Children and Families. These programs attempted to promote steady work and career advancement for current and former welfare recipients and other low-wage workers, most of whom were single mothers.
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Investing in Change
How Much Do Achieving the Dream Colleges Spend — and from What Resources — to Become Data-Driven Institutions?
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2010. Elizabeth M. Zachry and Erin Coghlan.
This report analyzes the experiences of five community colleges that participate in Lumina Foundation’s Achieving the Dream initiative and the investments they made in implementing an institutional improvement process aimed at increasing students’ success. The report examines how, where, and with what resources these colleges supported their reforms, as well as the key activities driving their overall expenditures.
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Making the Transition
Interim Results of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Evaluation
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2010. Megan Millenky, Dan Bloom, and Colleen Dillon.
Interim results from a random assignment evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive, residential program for high school dropouts, show that young people who had access to ChalleNGe were much more likely than those in the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate. They were also somewhat more likely to be working, in college, or enlisted in the military.
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Policies That Strengthen Fatherhood and Family Relationships
What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?
Working Paper
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2010. Virginia Knox, Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape Cowan, and Elana Bildner.
This working paper, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviews evidence about the effectiveness of two strategies to strengthen family relationships and fathers’ involvement with their children: fatherhood programs aimed at disadvantaged noncustodial fathers and relationship skills programs for parents who are together.
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The Implications of Teacher Selection and Teacher Effects in Some Education Experiments
Working Paper
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2010. Michael J. Weiss.
In some experimental evaluations of classroom- or school-level interventions, random assignment is conducted at the student level and the program is delivered at the higher level. This paper clarifies the correct causal interpretation of “program impacts” when this study design is used and discusses the implications and limitations of this research design. A real example is used to demonstrate the paper’s key points.
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Providing Health Benefits and Work-Related Services to Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries
Six-Month Results from the Accelerated Benefits Demonstration
Policy Brief
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2010. David Wittenburg, Anne Warren, Deborah Peikes, and Stephen Freedman.
This policy brief offers early findings from a demonstration testing whether earlier access to health care and related services for new Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries who lack health care coverage would lead to improved outcomes. So far, the intervention has increased the use of health care services and reduced the reported unmet health care needs of the project participants.
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Scaling Up Learning Communities
The Experience of Six Community Colleges
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Mary Visher, Emily Schneider, Heather Wathington, and Herbert Collado.
Learning communities, which enroll groups of students together in coordinated classes, are increasingly being used to help developmental-level students succeed. This report on the Learning Communities Demonstration, a large-scale, random assignment evaluation, describes the strategies that six community colleges used and the challenges they faced in scaling up their programs.
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Transitional Jobs
Background, Program Models, and Evaluation Evidence
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2010. Dan Bloom.
Transitional jobs programs provide temporary, wage-paying jobs and other services to help individuals who have difficulty succeeding in the regular labor market. In the context of a new federal initiative to support and study these programs, this paper describes what is known about transitional jobs and offers ideas for program design and research.
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Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study
After the First Year of Implementation
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U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
2010. Michael S. Garet, Andrew J. Wayne, Fran Stancavage, James Taylor, Kirk Walters, Mengli Song, Seth Brown, Steven Hurlburt, Pei Zhu, Susan Sepanik, and Fred Doolittle
This report presents first-year results from the Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences. The professional development programs for seventh-grade math teachers had an impact on one measure of teacher practice but no effects on teachers’ knowledge or student achievement.
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When Is the Story in the Subgroups?
Strategies for Interpreting and Reporting Intervention Effects on Subgroups
Working Paper
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2010. Howard S. Bloom and Charles Michalopoulos.
This paper examines strategies for interpreting and reporting estimates of intervention effects for subgroups of a study sample. Specifically, the paper considers: why and how subgroup findings are important for applied research, the importance of pre-specifying subgroups before analyses are conducted, and the importance of using existing theory and prior research to distinguish between subgroups for which study findings are confirmatory, as opposed to exploratory.
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Toward Reduced Poverty Across Generations
Early Findings from New York City’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program
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2010. James Riccio, Nadine Dechausay, David Greenberg, Cynthia Miller, Zawadi Rucks, and Nandita Verma.
Targeted toward low-income families in six high-poverty New York City communities, Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards offers cash payments tied to efforts and achievements in children’s education, family preventive health care practices, and parents’ employment. In its first two years, the program substantially reduced poverty and material hardship and had positive results in improving some education, health-related, and work-related outcomes.
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Terms of Engagement
Men of Color Discuss Their Experiences in Community College
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2010. Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Herbert Collado, Kasey Martin, and Alma Castro, with Thomas Brock and Genevieve Orr.
This report takes an in-depth look at the perceptions and experiences of 87 African-American, Hispanic, and Native American men who were enrolled in developmental math courses at four community colleges. The study explores how the students’ experiences in their high schools and communities, as well as their identities as men of color, influenced their decision to go to college and their engagement in school.
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Case Studies of Three Community Colleges
The Policy and Practice of Assessing and Placing Students in Developmental Education Courses
Working Paper
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Stephanie Safran and Mary G. Visher
This paper reports on case studies conducted at three community colleges to learn about how the colleges assess students for placement in developmental education courses. The case studies identify several problems and challenges, including lack of consensus about the standard for college-level work, the high-stakes nature of the assessments, and the minimal relationship between assessment for placement and diagnosis for instruction.
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Building a Learning Agenda Around Disconnected Youth
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2010. Dan Bloom, Saskia Levy Thompson, and Rob Ivry.
Built on a research review and consultation with youth policy experts, this paper makes the case for developing a menu of approaches for the heterogeneous population of disconnected youth, building knowledge about mature programs (to better understand whether they work, for whom, and why), and creating new programs that address areas of unmet need. This framework may be particularly relevant for the Administration’s newly proposed Youth Innovation Fund.
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The Social Security Administration’s Youth Transition Demonstration Projects
Implementation Lessons from the Original Projects
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U.S. Social Security Administration
2010. John Martinez, Thomas Fraker, Michelle Manno, Peter Baird, Arif Mamun, Bonnie O’Day, Anu Rangarajan, and David Wittenburg.
The Youth Transition Demonstration, led by Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and TransCen, Inc., is developing and evaluating promising strategies to help youth with disabilities become as economically self-sufficient as possible as they transition from school to work. This report offers six overall implementation lessons to help policymakers and administrators develop, fund, and provide interventions for youth with disabilities.
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New York City’s Changing High School Landscape
High Schools and Their Characteristics, 2002-2008
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2010. Janet C. Quint, Janell K. Smith, Rebecca Unterman, and Alma E. Moedano, with Corinne M. Herlihy, Saskia Levy Thompson, and Collin F. Payne.
This report examines the sweeping transformation of New York City’s public high school system — the nation’s largest — during the first decade of the twenty-first century, when nearly 200 new small high schools were created. Two companion reports focus on the role of intermediaries in this reform effort and provide case studies of six schools.
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Creating a Platform for Sustained Neighborhood Improvement
Interim Findings from Chicago’s New Communities Program
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2010. David Greenberg, Nandita Verma, Keri-Nicole Dillman, and Robert Chaskin, with James A. Riccio
A 10-year, $47 million MacArthur Foundation initiative, the New Communities Program was developed and is managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Chicago. This interim report focuses on the roll out of this comprehensive neighborhood improvement initiative and its early implementation years, examining community conditions, how local groups worked together, and the more than 700 projects supported through 2008.
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Sustained Earnings Gains for Residents in a Public Housing Jobs Program
Seven-Year Findings from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
Policy Brief
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2010. James Riccio.
An extended analysis of Jobs-Plus, an ambitious employment program inside some of the nation’s poorest inner-city public housing developments, finds substantial effects on residents’ earnings a full three years after the program ended.
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The Employment Retention and Advancement Project
Results from the Los Angeles Reach for Success Program
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2009. Jacquelyn Anderson, Stephen Freedman, and Gayle Hamilton.
A program in Los Angeles offering individualized and flexible case management services to working welfare recipients did not substantially increase the use of work-based services by participants – and did not lead to greater employment or higher earnings than did the county’s existing postemployment program.
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Guiding Developmental Math Students to Campus Services
An Impact Evaluation of the Beacon Program at South Texas College
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2010. Mary G. Visher, Kristin F. Butcher, and Oscar S. Cerna, with Dan Cullinan and Emily Schneider.
Created as part of the national Achieving the Dream initiative, a “light touch” intervention targeting students enrolled in lower-level math courses increased the number of students using campus tutoring and academic services. While the program has not improved math class pass rates or persistence in college overall, it has had positive effects for part-time and developmental students.
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New Empirical Evidence for the Design of Group Randomized Trials in Education
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2009. Robin Jacob, Pei Zhu, and Howard S. Bloom.
This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing studies that randomize groups to measure the impacts of educational interventions.
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Modern Regression Discontinuity Analysis
Working Paper
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2009. Howard S. Bloom.
This paper provides a detailed discussion of the theory and practice of modern regression discontinuity. It describes how regression discontinuity analysis can provide valid and reliable estimates of general causal effects and of the specific effects of a particular treatment on outcomes for particular persons or groups.
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Alternative Welfare-to-Work Strategies for the Hard-to-Employ
Testing Transitional Jobs and Pre-Employment Services in Philadelphia
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2009. Dan Bloom, Sarah Rich, Cindy Redcross, Erin Jacobs, Jennifer Yahner, and Nancy Pindus.
Interim results from an evaluation of two different welfare-to-work strategies for long-term welfare recipients show that transitional jobs increase employment and earnings but that it is difficult to successfully engage participants in extensive pre-employment services.
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Promoting Preschool Quality Through Effective Classroom Management
Implementation Lessons from the Foundations of Learning Demonstration
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2009. Chrishana M. Lloyd and Michael Bangser, with Farrah Parkes.
Foundations of Learning provided in-class training and support to teachers, and one-on-one clinical services to children, to enhance preschool quality. This report offers lessons regarding program design, management, staffing, and professional development issues that arose during implementation in Newark, NJ.
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Spending Time Together
Time Use Estimates for Economically Disadvantaged and Nondisadvantaged Married Couples in the United States
Working Paper
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2009. David J. Fein
Contrary to some expectations, economically disadvantaged couples spend slightly more time together than nondisadvantaged ones, and more of that time is spent in leisure activities, according to this paper from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project. While these couples may face different barriers to participating in voluntary programs than higher-income couples, their “time crunch” appears to be no worse.
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Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization
Will the Past Be Prologue?
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2009. Gordon L. Berlin.
In remarks given at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, MDRC President Gordon Berlin looks at the extraordinary challenges the current labor market presents to employment policy generally and WIA reauthorization specifically, outlines what we have (and haven’t) learned from research, and makes recommendations for future directions.
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Helping Low-Wage Workers Access Work Supports
Lessons for Practitioners
Policy Brief
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2009. Kay Sherwood.
This 12-page brief distills practical implementation lessons from four programs that help low-wage workers access and retain child care subsidies, public health insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and other related government benefits.
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Paying for College Success
An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration
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2009. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, Paulette Cha, Monica Cuevas, Amanda Grossman, Reshma Patel, and Colleen Sommo.
This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships — paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks — are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.
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Findings for the Eugene and Medford, Oregon, Models
Implementation and Early Impacts for Two Programs That Sought to Encourage Advancement Among Low-Income Workers
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2009. Frieda Molina, Mark van Dok, Richard Hendra, Gayle Hamilton, and Wan-Lae Cheng.
While these two different programs in the Employment Retention and Advancement Project both increased service receipt, neither had effects on job retention or advancement after 1.5 years of follow-up.
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Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners
Implementation, Two-Year Impacts, and Costs of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
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2009. Cindy Redcross, Dan Bloom, Gilda Azurdia, Janine Zweig, and Nancy Pindus.
A random assignment study shows that participants in CEO’s transitional jobs program were less likely to be convicted of a crime, to be admitted to prison for a new conviction, or to be incarcerated for any reason in prison or jail over the first two years. The program also had a large but short-lived impact on employment.
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The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs
Final Report
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U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
2009. Alison Rebeck Black, Marie-Andrée Somers, Fred Doolittle, Rebecca Unterman, and Jean Baldwin Grossman.
This report presents two-year implementation and impact findings on two supplemental academic instruction approaches developed for after-school settings -- one for math and one for reading. It addresses whether one-year impacts are different in the second year of program operations and whether students benefit from being offered two years of enhanced after-school academic instruction.
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Working toward Wellness
Early Results from a Telephone Care Management Program for Medicaid Recipients with Depression
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2009. Sue Kim, Allen LeBlanc, and Charles Michalopoulos.
Very early results from a random assignment study suggest that Working toward Wellness increased the use of mental health services and had mixed effects on depression severity. Impacts are concentrated among Hispanic participants.
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Can Teacher Training in Classroom Management Make a Difference for Children’s Experiences in Preschool?
A Preview of Findings from the Foundations of Learning Demonstration
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2009. Pamela Morris, Cybele Raver, Chrishana M. Lloyd, and Megan Millenky.
Early evaluation results from Newark, NJ, show that Foundations of Learning improved teachers’ classroom management and productivity, reduced children’s conflict with peers, and engaged students in the learning tasks of preschool. The intervention was implemented in Head Start programs, community-based child care centers, and public schools.
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Building Student Success From the Ground Up
A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College
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2009. Elizabeth Zachry and Genevieve Orr.
Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform.
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A Preliminary Look at Early Educational Results of the Opportunity NYC – Family Rewards Program
A Research Note for Funders
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2009. Cynthia Miller, James Riccio, and Jared Smith.
Targeted toward very low-income families in six high-poverty New York City communities, Family Rewards offers cash payments tied to efforts and achievements in children’s education, family preventive health care practices, and parents’ employment. This paper reviews data on participants’ receipt of rewards and offers preliminary estimates of the program’s impacts on selected educational outcomes during the first year.
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More Guidance, Better Results?
Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges
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2009. Susan Scrivener and Michael J. Weiss, with Jedediah J. Teres.
In this program, low-income students received enhanced student services and were eligible for a modest stipend for two semesters. The program improved academic outcomes in the second semester and registration in the semester after that, but these effects did not persist in subsequent semesters.
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The Employment Retention and Advancement Project
Results from the Substance Abuse Case Management Program in New York City
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2009. John Martinez, Gilda Azurdia, Dan Bloom, and Cynthia Miller.
Participants in an intensive care management program for public assistance recipients with substance abuse problems were slightly more likely to enroll in treatment than participants in less intensive services. However, the intensive program had no effects on employment or public benefit receipt among the full sample.
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The Joyce Foundation’s Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration
Testing Strategies to Help Former Prisoners Find and Keep Jobs and Stay Out of Prison
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The Joyce Foundation
2009. Dan Bloom.
Each year, almost 700,000 people are released from state prisons, and many struggle to find jobs and integrate successfully into society. This policy brief describes an innovative demonstration of transitional jobs programs for former prisoners in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Paul being conducted by MDRC.
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2010
