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,…

In 2006-2007 a non-profit reading institute initiated a reading reform programme in the United States in which demonstration classrooms were established in 13 of the lowest performing schools in Mississippi, a state recognised for its high rate of poverty and low academic achievement. This qualitative study describes the experiences of 12 highly…

In order to test the effects of financial subsidies on employment for disadvantaged youth, two experimental situations were set up: (1) a worker subsidy operating in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and (2) an employer subsidy operating in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The first project, the Cambridge Job Factory Voucher Experiment, tested a voucher…

This report discusses the findings of a research demonstration project conducted to test the entrepreneurship programming approach, in which dual program objectives are pursued with equal emphasis: (1) training objectives involving the employability development of out-of-school disadvantaged youth, and (2) enterprise objectives involving the…

Father involvement enhances children's well-being. A growing body of research supports this conclusion, showing that children with involved fathers exhibit greater school readiness, increased cognitive development, higher levels of empathy, and other positive characteristics (Administration for Children and Families 2004a). Research also indicates…

This volume is one of the products of the knowledge development activities mounted in conjunction with research, evaluation, and development activities funded under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. Based on the Ventures in Community Improvement (VICI) "enhanced" job training/job placement approach, which used…

The Oklahoma exemplary program located at Tulsa was designed to provide occupational orientation and vocational training for disadvantaged and previously unserved students from Grade 5 through 12 in a comprehensive urban school system. To evaluate the program, data were collected about the: (1) contest or goals and objectives of the program in…

Results of a study designed to distinguish between attitude development of rural disadvantaged high school students enrolled in exemplary special vocational programs and those enrolled in nonvocational general programs showed that disadvantaged vocational students exhibited more positive attitudes toward self and other school social relations and…

This study reports on one of the knowledge development activities conducted under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of l977 (YEDPA). The report contains findings of an analysis of nine YEDPA projects and the factors that contributed to effective implementation of these programs. The study compares discrete projects with different…

An interim evaluation was conducted to determine the impact of the National Supported Work Demonstration (NSWD) on employment of four target groups: Aid for Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients, ex-drug-addicts, ex-offenders, and youths. The evaluation was based on data collected in interviews with 2,830 persons--1,419 of whom were offered…

This paper reviews ten years of evaluation efforts by the sponsors of Follow Through programs, maintaining that sponsors' evaluations provide a different, equally valuable perspective to the one provided by the national evaluations of Follow Through. Sponsors were persons or groups that developed educational models for Follow Through and enacted…

Project Citywork was a demonstration project to provide employment for disadvantaged youth, and at the same time to determine which kinds of programs tend to work, and which do not. The program included work experience in nonprofit agencies; on-the-job training in the private sector; supportive services including counseling and classroom training,…

The development and operation of the Federally funded Ventures in Community Improvement Demonstration Project (VICI) and its impact on participant youths and communities are summarized in this report. VICI's purposes were (1) to provide young, minority, inner-city, high school dropouts with intensive skills training in the workplace that could…

This paper examines vintage (cohort), environmental, and structural problems associated with youth employment, and discusses strategies for improving job opportunities. Evaluates effects of the Elementary Secondary Education Act, Vocational Education Act, Youth Entitlement Demonstration, Supported Work Demonstration, and Job Corps. (JCD)

This report presents findings and recommendations resulting from the evaluation of programs implemented in 15 cities by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. These programs were implemented to distribute variations on the "Weed and Seed" program and its provision of crime and drug prevention programs. The overall goal of Weed and Seed was…