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 expense of attending college is one factor that may explain why low-income students often drop out of school. In California, despite generous state aid and relatively low fees at community colleges, many low-income students still have substantial college-related costs that they cannot cover. To compound matters, federal support for students…

This report presents early results from a rigorous evaluation of a performance-based scholarship program that was implemented at three community colleges in Ohio during the 2008-2009 academic year. The program in Ohio that is the subject of this report is part of MDRC's national Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration, which was launched…

The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston…

The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston…

This article describes the evaluation of two family group decision-making programs administered under the California Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project. This is the only evaluation using random assignment to examine FGDM. Overall, results did not indicate more positive outcomes for children receiving the intervention, but did indicate that…

This study empirically investigates the effectiveness of Distributed Leadership Teacher Training (DLT) program on improving student's academic achievement. In addition, it both tests the assumption that the year 1 impacts are stable across calendar years and examines the importance of properly accounting for the fact that the standard error of the…

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…

Since 1988 five evaluations of Federal demonstration programs in education have been implemented that had random-assignment designs to measure program impacts. The implementation of two of these evaluations, the evaluation of the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program and that of the Alternative Schools Random Assignment Program, are…

The purpose of this project was to design, execute, and evaluate a film to be used as a public education program in rehabilitation counseling. The film "Will It Be You?" was produced to interest undergraduate students in a career in rehabilitation counseling and to inform the general public of the goals and services of rehabilitation counseling.…

Offers a report on Visions for Children--an early childhood demonstration program with the goal of facilitating intellectual development and academic achievement and enhancing self-concepts of African-American preschoolers. Base-line data from the first two phases of child testing comparing program participants and control group children is…

The Yale Summer High School (YSHS) is an experimental program addressed to the development of high-potential, underachieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the intervention, an experimental design including random selection of samples, two control groups (one matched for a test of…

A SAMPLE OF 236 FORMER MENTAL PATIENTS WAS DIVIDED INTO (1) AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP OF 111 CLIENTS WHO RECEIVED FROM 6 TO 12 MONTHS OF AN INTENSIVE AND GRADED SERIES OF VOCATIONAL EXPERIENCES, WITH SUPPORTING PERSONAL AND THERAPEUTIC SERVICES, (2) A CONTROL GROUP OF 40, AND (3) TWO COMPARISON GROUPS OF 63 AND 40 CLIENTS. SOME PURPOSES OF THE STUDY…

An evaluation of the Career Alternatives Model (CAM) program in the Highline School District, Washington, assessed the impact of four key components: (1) the film series "Bread and Butterflies" (for grades 4-6), designed to increase acceptance of responsibility for future career development and to increase maturity in career decision…

A 2-WEEK SUMMER CAMPING PROGRAM WAS OFFERED TO 61 DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS ABOUT TO ENTER LINCOLN JUNIOR HIGH IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA. THE PROGRAM'S PRIMARY PURPOSE WAS TO EASE THE STUDENT'S TRANSITION INTO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. THROUGH CAMPING ACTIVITIES AND SCHOOL ORIENTATION CLASSES CONDUCTED BY THE LINCOLN STAFF, CAMPERS WOULD BECOME ACQUAINTED…