Evidence First

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) provides wrap-around support and employment services to people returning home from incarceration. While participant feedback was always important to their work, CEO was looking to better understand the range of their participants’ experiences and use it to improve the services they provide. MDRC’s Center for Data Insights (CDI) partnered with CEO and used data science tools and qualitative research to better utilize the feedback CEO was receiving from their participants.   In this episode, Leigh Parise first talks with Alissa Stover, a former research analyst at MDRC and CDI. Alissa describes CDI’s partnership with CEO, the importance of big-picture thinking in data science, and their implications. Ahmed Whitt, the director of learning and impact at CEO, then explains the critical lessons that were learned.  

Through its Real World Learning initiative in the Kansas City metropolitan area, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is working to ensure that all students in participating districts graduate from high school with a diploma and at least one market value asset (or MVA). MVAs are designed to prepare students for further education and employment. They can include such activities as completing an internship or employer-sponsored project, earning an industry-recognized credential, engaging in an entrepreneurial experience, or earning college credits. MDRC is the learning and evaluation partner on this project.  In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Dan Tesfay, senior program officer at the Kauffman Foundation, and Osvaldo Avila, research associate in MDRC's K-12 education policy area. They discuss what it takes to create partnerships between school districts and industries to develop MVAs and what they hope to learn from MDRC’s evaluation work.

The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) is a state government agency with a goal of increasing educational opportunity and attainment for Washington residents. WSAC has partnered with the MDRC Center for Data Insights (CDI) to create manageable data analytics tools for the agency to use to track and improve student outcomes.    In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Michael Meotti, WSAC Executive Director; Isaac Kwakye, WSAC Senior Director of Research and Student Success; and Rick Hendra, the Director of the MDRC Center for Data Insights about the partnership between WSAC and CDI. They dig into the details of how to use data analytics at the state level to increase evidence-based state policymaking in postsecondary education.

Industry-recognized credentials, or IRCs, are an increasingly common strategy used to demonstrate that high school students have learned skills or competencies in a specific industry or occupation. But what do we know about their impact on student outcomes? And do they help students succeed in college and in the labor market? In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Matt Giani, a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Affiliate in the Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, about his study for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that looks at the education and employment outcomes of Texas students who earn IRCs in high school.

While the percentage of adults with a postsecondary degree has increased over the past several decades, there are large gaps in degree attainment by race, ethnicity, and income. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with two higher education experts—Amanda Janice Roberson at the Institute for Higher Education Policy and Jinann Bitar at The Education Trust—about policies and practices to advance equitable student outcomes in higher education, including the federal College Completion Fund.

Child support agencies aim to secure payments from noncustodial parents to support the well-being of their children. When noncustodial parents fall behind on child support, they may face consequences, such as driver's license suspensions, civil contempt, and even jail time. These enforcement actions can make it harder for parents to make future child support payments. The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration, sponsored by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), integrates principles of procedural justice into enforcement practices in six child support agencies across the United States. Procedural justice is the perception of fairness in processes that resolve disputes and result in decisions. Research has shown that if people perceive a process to be fair, they will be more likely to comply with the outcome of that process, whether or not the outcome is favorable to them. MDRC, MEF Associates, and the Center for Court Innovation are evaluating the effective

The pandemic has had devastating effects on students’ learning. One strategy to help students is individualized instruction, which includes interventions like tutoring. In this lively episode, Leigh Parise talks with Andy Rotherham, cofounder of Bellwether, a national education nonprofit organization, and William Corrin, the director of MDRC’s K-12 Education policy area, about the promise, challenges, and politics of implementing individualized instruction.

Green jobs in diverse industries, such as transportation, construction, environmental management, and agriculture, have grown in recent years and are predicted to further increase in the future. Filling these jobs will require a skilled workforce, yet federal investments in training for green jobs have focused mostly on adults. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Rachel Rosen, a senior research associate and co-director of MDRC's Center for Effective Career and Technical Education, on evidence-based strategies that can help create pathways for careers in the green economy for young people.

The majority of children in the United States now attend some type of formal pre-K program before starting elementary school. Pre-K assessments—or short tests and activities that measure early skills—are an important tool for understanding children’s learning and development in these settings. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Lia Wilson, the Preschool Program Coordinator at the Parent Infant Center in Philadelphia, and Brooks Wilson, a Lead Teacher at the Center, to gain their perspective of the assessment process and how it can be improved.

The majority of children in the United States now attend some type of formal pre-K program before starting elementary school. Pre-K assessments—or short tests and activities that measure early skills—are an important tool for understanding children’s learning and development in these settings. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with two leaders from the AppleTree Institute—Dr. Niesha Keemer, Principal and Instructional Leader, and Dr. Abby Carlson, Director of Research and Impact­— about the benefits of pre-K assessments and the AppleTree Institute’s Every Child Ready model.

As part of the criminal justice system, the pretrial system is set up to ensure individuals appear in court to maintain public safety and maximize pretrial release. But over the last few decades, a more punitive approach to pretrial justice has evolved, in which jailing individuals who haven't been convicted of a crime has become the norm in many jurisdictions. In many cases, individuals remain in jail pretrial simply because they cannot afford the cash bail set in their case. As a result, people with low incomes, unable to pay for their freedom, are more likely to suffer the consequences of pretrial detention, including major disruptions to work and family life, regardless of their likelihood of returning to court or the risk they pose to public safety. To combat the rise in jail populations and to make pretrial practices more equitable, jurisdictions across the country are seeking to reform their pretrial systems.

Improving outcomes for community college students has long been the focus of rigorous research studies by MDRC and others. Through a project called The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trial, or THE-RCT, MDRC has created a broadly accessible database that compiles student-level data from all MDRC’s randomized controlled trial evaluations of postsecondary education programs. Researchers are able to use the database to conduct analyses across studies to answer important questions about the effectiveness of different higher education interventions. THE-RCT is supported by Arnold Ventures and the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Michael Weiss, a Senior Fellow in MDRC's Postsecondary Education policy area, about how MDRC has used this database, how other researchers can access it, and how MDRC is encouraging colleagues to contribute their own studies to THE-RCT.

A growing body of research shows that comprehensive student support programs can increase graduation rates for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color. But what do these programs look like on the ground? And what are the experiences of students participating in them? In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with students and staff from Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Indiana about SUCCESS, a student support program that offers personalized advising and financial incentives and emphasizes data-driven program management. Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington is one of 13 colleges across five states participating in MDRC’s Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS), which aims to increase degree completion through the implementation of comprehensive support programs based on strong evidence.

Too many people in the United States struggle to achieve economic mobility. With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting vulnerable populations the most, gaining financial stability became even harder. Workforce programs that focus on helping people find jobs may not be enough to advance in the labor market, especially for people facing additional barriers to success. The MyGoals for Employment Success program offers a unique coaching model that concentrates on developing executive skills—like emotional control, stress tolerance, time management, and organization—to help participants successfully navigate the labor market, acquire occupational credentials, perform well at a job, and advance at work. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with two MyGoals coaches, Shirley McGee from the Houston Housing Authority and Ashley Coston from the Housing Authority of Baltimore, about the challenges the participants and coaches face and the benefits the program offers to the participants.

Programs that combine employment services with substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery services have faced unprecedented challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased substance misuse and overdose, dramatic increases in unemployment, and the need to quickly shift to virtual service provision. In partnership, MDRC, Abt Associates, and MEF Associates learned how some of these SUD treatment programs adapted their services early in the pandemic in response to these challenges [ link to the brief]. MDRC recently released a brief on responses to COVID-19 by seven SUD treatment programs across the country. The brief was written as part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies Project, or BEES, funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with researchers Karin Martinson from Abt Associates and Susan Scrivener from MDRC about the key findings from the brief. They are joined by Matthew

Work-based learning opportunities, like internships and apprenticeships, are a critical component to many career and technical education programs. They can help participants develop critical skills for in-demand careers. The abrupt shift to virtual education caused by the pandemic hit these programs especially hard. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Hannah Dalporto, a research associate at MDRC, who recently cowrote a piece about how employers and trainers have been adapting their services during the pandemic to keep students connected to the labor market.

Early childhood experiences of trauma and toxic stress can affect how young children develop and are associated with learning and behavior problems. Child First is a promising home visiting program that aims to mitigate or prevent these negative experiences for families to promote healthy development for kids.  An initial study of Child First found that the program improved children's social-emotional skills and language development, reduced mother's depression and improved their psychological functioning, reduced family involvement with child protective services, and increased families' connections to services and support. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Mervett Hefyan, a research analyst at MDRC; Massiel Abramson, a clinician with Child First in Connecticut; and Jessica Canavan, a licensed clinical social worker and assistant director of community-based services at her organization in North Carolina, which houses a Child First program. They discuss MDRC's replication study of Child First and how th

A special series from the Rural Matters podcast This episode is the last of a special four-part series about issues facing rural higher education from our colleagues at the Rural Matters podcast. It is coproduced by MDRC and supported by Ascendium Education Group. As the United States confronts the recession caused by the pandemic, the economic stability of rural areas looms large. Many rural counties never economically rebounded from the 2008 recession, even as urban and suburban communities recovered. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2019 Rural America at a Glance Report identifies three reasons for the divergence in employment rates and salaries between urban and rural areas: an older population, a higher proportion of the population with disabilities, and lower educational attainment.  In this episode, Rural Matters host Michelle Rathman chats with three experts about innovative programs to promote sustainable growth for rural communities and economic mobility for students: Matt Dunne, founder and

A special series from the Rural Matters podcast This episode is the third of a special four-part series about issues facing rural higher education from our colleagues at the Rural Matters podcast. It is coproduced by MDRC and supported by Ascendium Education Group. Rural America is not monolithic. About 15 to 20 percent of rural individuals identify as non-white, but in many areas of the country the percentage is much higher. Even in predominantly white states, rural diversity is increasing faster than urban diversity, which is important for understanding rural issues, including promoting access to higher education and dealing with rural poverty.  In this episode, Rural Matters host Michelle Rathman chats with four experts on diversity in rural communities and institutions of higher education: MDRC’s Alyssa Ratledge; Deborah Santiago, the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education; Edward Smith-Lewis, Executive Director of UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building, a team dedicated to supp

Why don't government social services programs better serve families struggling through crises like the COVID-19 pandemic? One reason is that these systems are designed for compliance over access. Many of those who are in need and qualify for benefits are deterred by administrative burdens, including excessive steps and paperwork. Insights from behavioral science can help agencies and nonprofits find ways to streamline their processes and simplify their communications with clients. In this episode of Evidence First, Leigh Parise interviews Rebecca Schwartz, a research analyst in MDRC’s Center for Applied Behavioral Science (CABS). Rebecca describes real-world examples of how CABS has worked with agencies to improve their service delivery to families. She also highlights how the federal government adopted an important behavioral technique — prospective eligibility — in the recent distribution of the CARES Act stimulus checks.