MDRC

We’re excited to see the impact of SUNY Westchester Community College’s Viking ROADS program, inspired by CUNY ASAP! MDRC’s new study shows a 12 percentage point increase in graduation rates, even during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This remarkable success underscores the effectiveness of programs like CUNY ASAP in helping students achieve their academic and career goals!??

MDRC and SUNY Westchester Community College announced today new study results from MDRC's rigorous random assignment evaluation of SUNY WCC’s Viking ROADS (Resources for Obtaining Associate Degrees and Success) program. The findings were released at an event at SUNY WCC. After three years, Viking ROADS increased graduation rates by a notable 12 percentage points, a remarkable result considering that the program study was launched shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also boosted full-time enrollment and credit accumulation. Viking ROADS, launched in 2018?with major support from Arnold Ventures and an anonymous WCC Foundation donor, is based closely on the successful The City University of New York's CUNY ASAP, a comprehensive community college program that has boosted graduation rates in prior evaluations in New York City and Ohio. SUNY WCC received technical assistance from CUNY during the study replication. The State University of New York has expanded the program to 25 campuses reaching more than 4,000 students in 2024. Press release: https://lnkd.in/e2iV_rYy

I fell in love with early math while coaching on the Making Pre-K Count team referenced here. These days I support preschool teachers in Western MA for TeachingWorks as part of the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative and use a lot of the same evidence-based activities and approaches!

A brief from Community College Research Center and MDRC describes the process of adopting Multiple Measures Assessment (MMA) in Arkansas and presents five state-focused strategies for the scaling of MMA. Readers will find examples and resources, including a research-based toolkit, which may be helpful for those who want to design new or improve existing MMA systems in states with decentralized systems. Click the link to learn more. https://bit.ly/4kJwj3T #AscendiumEP #RemoveBarriers

High dosage tutoring is happening in rural New Mexico with excellent attendance rates. Why does this matter? Students can't benefit from tutoring if they don't go - and we need to find tutoring models that can effectively reach rural areas! ?? The average student in our study attended **71 minutes of tutoring per week**. Check out this blogpost that I wrote with my amazing colleagues at MDRC and the University of Chicago Education Lab about how the Personalized Learning Initiative partnered with the New Mexico Public Education Department and mostly rural schools to rollout this virtual tutoring model. ? with Janey Woo, Jackie Mendez, Jean Grossman & Matteo Magnaricotte (who appears to not be on LinkedIn yet :)). And with big props to Michelle Korbakes (also not on LinkedIn) and Horace Buddoo, Ed.S., M.S..

The Board of Directors and the staff of?MDRC?mourn the passing of business executive and attorney Robert E. Denham, who served on the MDRC Board from 2014 to 2025. Denham died on March 15, 2025. Denham was a long-time partner at the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions and advising clients on strategic, financial, and corporate governance issues.?In the 1990s, he served as general counsel and then chairman and CEO of Salomon, Inc. “Bob valued MDRC’s mission and generously devoted his time and insights as chair of our investment committee for eight years,” said MDRC President Virginia Knox. “We are grateful for his many contributions and will miss him.”

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Lessons learned from Fulton County Schools on embedding high-dosage tutoring in secondary math classes Our MDRC partners published a blog post highlighting key takeaways from the implementation of a tutoring program in Fulton County, Georgia as a part of our Personalized Learning Initiative. The piece offers a deeper look at the strategies that make tutoring successful and how schools can effectively implement them. Read the blog post: https://lnkd.in/gfQQ-8Z6

In 2022-2023, the New Mexico Public Education Department rolled out a high-dosage tutoring program statewide for ninth-graders; the original model was designed to address staffing challenges in rural parts of the state and focused on providing virtual math tutoring for students outside school hours, in the evening or on weekends. In response to low participation rates, New Mexico shifted the timing of virtual tutoring in 2023-2024 to occur during the school day and to focus on middle school, with dramatic results: attendance rates were extremely high in the schools where the program was offered. Schools were able to find the time to provide proctored, virtual tutoring to all students in a grade and facilitated communication between tutors and teachers, resulting in students receiving a substantial amount of personalized math instruction. A virtual, in-school model like New Mexico’s may be one way that rural school districts or districts struggling with staffing shortages can still provide high-dosage tutoring. A project of the Personalized Learning Initiative with the University of Chicago Education Lab, MDRC, Saga Education, Accelerate, and America Achieves.

MDRC mourns the untimely passing of Amy Kerwin, a real champion for using evidence to improve higher education and increase opportunity for college students.