In the 2020-2021 school year, many schools and districts around the country implemented routine COVID-19 testing to proactively detect cases among teachers, students, and staff and stop the spread of the virus. Such testing made it possible for many communities to gain the needed support from teachers and parents to reopen schools and resume…

Performance-based scholarships have two main goals: (1) to give students more money for college; and (2) to provide incentives for academic progress. MDRC launched the Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration in 2008 to evaluate the effectiveness of these scholarships in a diverse set of states, institutions, and low-income student…

One of the original purposes of student financial aid was to ensure fairer access to post-secondary education to those least able to afford it and to those traditionally underrepresented. Various federal and state programs were put in place to achieve this goal, including the federal Pell Grant and state aid programs. Yet policymakers and…

The Social Security Administration is funding a random assignment evaluation of six demonstration projects to improve employment and other outcomes for youth ages 14 to 25 who are either receiving disability benefits or are at high risk of receiving them in the future. This report reviews the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects, located…

More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and around 700,000 are released from prison each year. Those who are released face daunting obstacles as they seek to reenter their communities, and rates of recidivism are high. Many experts believe that stable employment is critical to a successful transition from prison to the…

MDRC is conducting the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project under a contract with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part of the multisite Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, MDRC,…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2009-2010. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this report provide a snapshot of these…

This report provides initial results of Illinois' Shifting Gears Initiative that operated between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009. This mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) evaluation sought to accomplish three goals: (1) to assess program and student outcomes for two models (adult education and developmental education) for two target groups…

This report focuses on the initial design, implementation and baseline results of the five-year Longitudinal Educational Growth Study (LEGS) of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP). The LEGS will be the first evaluation of the participant effects of the MPCP using…

A study examined the impact of the "Closing the Achievement Gap" (CAG schools) program on the academic achievement of students in 30 schools serving high percentages of African American and economically disadvantaged students in West Virginia (WV), 2004-2008. The program assigned experienced educators, "CAG liaisons", to the…

Between the 1975-76 and 1976-77 school years, Title I school eligibility, student selection, and concentration of funds and services are scheduled to change. This report outlines the plans of the agency which will compare the distribution of instructional and other educational services before and after the policy changes and provide analysis for…

The final report of a 3 year federally funded project for neurologically handicapped children focuses on accomplishments in the following nine areas: direct and supplementary services for children's services, parent/family participation, assessment of child progress, inservice training for project staff, training for personnel from other programs…

In February 2007, First 5 LA contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) and its subcontractors, Juarez and Associates, American Institutes for Research (AIR), and Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center, to conduct the First 5 LA/LAUP Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS). The authors conducted the study…

The Washington Reemployment Bonus Experiment (WREB) was composed of 6 different "treatments" involving offers of bonuses to over 12,000 unemployed workers filing initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The 6 treatments were represented by all combinations of 3 different "bonus amounts" calculated as either 2, 4, or 6 times the…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the 2004 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:04). NPSAS:04 is a comprehensive study of financial aid among postsecondary education students in the United States and Puerto Rico that provides information on trends in financial aid and on the ways in which families pay for…