Evidence First
Policymakers talk about solutions, but which ones really work? MDRC’s Evidence First podcast features experts—program administrators, policymakers, and researchers—talking about the best evidence available on education and social programs that serve people with low incomes.
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Training Workers When Employers Hire Based on Skills: Lessons from Connecticut and Virginia
02/15/2024
Training Workers When Employers Hire Based on Skills: Lessons from Connecticut and Virginia
As the cost of higher education climbs, skills-based hiring has gained traction. It’s a labor market trend in which employers hire based on applicants’ skills, with the understanding that degrees are not the only way to acquire competencies. In a follow-up to an , Rachel Rosen, who leads MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education, speaks with two guests: , Connecticut’s Chief Workforce Officer who leads the state’s Office of Workforce Strategy, and Vice President of Workforce Development for the Community College Workforce Alliance, which is the workforce development division of Brightpoint and Reynolds community colleges, within the Virginia Community College System. They discuss which sectors are experiencing an uptick in skills-based hiring in Connecticut, what non-degree programs are offered in Virginia, and whether skills-based hiring can promote equity.
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Implementing an Evidence-Based and Domain-Specific Pre-K Curriculum: A Conversation with Cheryl Ohlson and Michelle Maier
01/22/2024
Implementing an Evidence-Based and Domain-Specific Pre-K Curriculum: A Conversation with Cheryl Ohlson and Michelle Maier
Most pre-K classrooms use a whole-child approach to educational curricula, which focuses on the broad development of children’s academic skills. By contrast, domain-specific curricula focus more on specific areas of learning, such as math, literacy, or science. MDRC has partnered with the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) to implement a new domain-specific curriculum in its schools. In this episode, Leigh Parise speaks with Cheryl Ohlson, DCPS deputy chief of early childhood education, and Michelle Maier, MDRC senior associate, to outline their domain-specific curriculum strategy and to explain some of the ups and downs of their ongoing implementation in pre-K programs across Washington, DC. They explain how domain-specific curricula intersects with other important trends in pre-K education, including the importance of play and of providing developmentally appropriate instruction. Ohlson also discusses how teachers were trained to teach domain-specific curricula and addresses some of the challenges of implementing the initiative at scale.
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When Employers Hire Based on Skills: A Conversation with Matt Sigelman
12/21/2023
When Employers Hire Based on Skills: A Conversation with Matt Sigelman
As the cost of higher education climbs, skills-based hiring has gained traction. It’s a labor market trend in which employers hire based on applicants’ skills, with the understanding that degrees are not the only way to acquire competencies. Skills-based hiring has the potential to increase equity in the hiring process, providing avenues to socio-economic mobility for historically marginalized populations. However, there are also questions about whether the movement could demotivate students from pursuing two- or four-year degrees that may be more transferable to other jobs. To learn more about skills-based hiring across education and workforce training domains, Leigh Parise talks with Matt Sigelman, President of the Burning Glass Institute, which studies economic and workforce trends.
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Lessons about Tutoring and Addressing Learning Loss from Reading Partners
12/08/2023
Lessons about Tutoring and Addressing Learning Loss from Reading Partners
Many schools are expanding tutoring services and personalized instruction to address learning loss caused by the pandemic. This episode features Reading Partners, a successful national nonprofit that mobilizes community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring to students who struggle with reading in under-resourced elementary schools. MDRC has been working with Reading Partners for nearly 15 years to help document and improve the program’s effectiveness. found that its program boosted three different measures of reading proficiency, including reading comprehension, for second- to fifth-graders. In the first episode of a series celebrating MDRC’s 50th anniversary and our longtime collaborators, join Leigh Parise as she talks with Dean Elson, Chief Knowledge Officer at Reading Partners, and Robin Jacob, a Research Professor at Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and Co-Director of the Youth Policy Lab. Jacob helped lead MDRC’s evaluation of Reading Partners and is currently studying their distance learning model, Reading Partners Connects. Elson and Jacob discuss MDRC’s study of Reading Partners, how to get volunteers to teach reading effectively, and how technology will continue to play a role in tutoring.
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Adapting a Wraparound Student Support Program for College Students in Rural Areas: A Conversation with Crystine Miller and Alyssa Ratledge
11/01/2023
Adapting a Wraparound Student Support Program for College Students in Rural Areas: A Conversation with Crystine Miller and Alyssa Ratledge
Montana 10 is a scholarship program offered by the Montana University System that offers wraparound academic, social, and financial supports to students from rural areas, first-generation college students, and Native American students. MDRC is partnering with the Montana University System on an evaluation of Montana 10.. In this episode, Leigh Parise speaks with Crystine Miller, Director of Student Affairs and Student Engagement in the Montana University System, and Alyssa Ratledge, a Research Associate in Postsecondary Education at MDRC, about the Montana 10 evaluation and its potential value to the field of higher education research. The pair describes the unique challenges of conducting an evaluation in a mostly rural higher education system. They also highlight what questions the evaluation is hoping to answer about rural students. For example, does the choice between returning to one’s hometown after graduating and moving away to pursue employment carry a special weight for students from rural backgrounds? To learn more about the Montana 10 project and some of the barriers facing rural students in postsecondary education, check out recent commentary by Ratledge in The Hechinger Report.
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From Doubling Graduation Rates to Increasing Earnings: Replicating the City University of New York’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (CUNY ASAP) in Ohio
08/24/2023
From Doubling Graduation Rates to Increasing Earnings: Replicating the City University of New York’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (CUNY ASAP) in Ohio
In 2014, three Ohio colleges set out to adapt a student support model pioneered by the City University of New York called Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, or ASAP. The program requires students to attend college full time and provides them with support services for three years, including enhanced advising, financial aid, and career counseling. MDRC'S evaluation of the ASAP Ohio program has found that it doubled graduation rates for community college students after three years. With support from Arnold Ventures, MDRC recently released exciting long-term findings, showing that ASAP Ohio not only boosted attainment of associate’s and bachelor’s degrees after six years but also increased the earnings of students. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Christine Brongniart, the University Executive Director of CUNY ASAP, and Colleen Sommo, a senior research fellow in MDRC's Postsecondary Education policy area, to learn more about the CUNY ASAP model, its replication across the country, and the latest findings from MDRC’s study of the program in Ohio.
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Nondegree Credential Programs in Higher Ed: A Conversation with Paul Fain and Betsy Tessler
07/24/2023
Nondegree Credential Programs in Higher Ed: A Conversation with Paul Fain and Betsy Tessler
Nondegree credentials are typically certificates or licenses earned in a short period of time that confer some kind of professional or industry-recognized skill. They’re not new to the world of higher education, but they have received a lot of attention in the last few years as a “faster ” way to connect students to employment in comparison to earning a traditional college degree. Leigh Parise sits down with Paul Fain, a higher education journalist who writes an education and workforce newsletter called “The Job,” and Betsy Tessler, a senior research associate at MDRC, to answer some of the big questions surrounding nondegree credentials.
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Reflections on the Evidence-Building Movement
06/14/2023
Reflections on the Evidence-Building Movement
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with MDRC President Virginia (Ginger) Knox and Naomi Goldstein, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Goldstein is also a member of the MDRC Board of Directors. They reflect on their experiences in evaluating programs and policies, the growth of the evidence-building movement, and future considerations for the field.
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How Can Data Science Tools Better Represent Participant Experiences? A Conversation with Ahmed Whitt and Alissa Stover
04/20/2023
How Can Data Science Tools Better Represent Participant Experiences? A Conversation with Ahmed Whitt and Alissa Stover
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.
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Can Market Value Assets Better Prepare Students for College and Career?
03/30/2023
Can Market Value Assets Better Prepare Students for College and Career?
Through its 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 , senior program officer at the Kauffman Foundation, and , 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.
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How Can State Government Agencies Increase Their Use of Data Analytics? A Conversation with Michael Meotti, Isaac Kwakye, and Rick Hendra
02/08/2023
How Can State Government Agencies Increase Their Use of Data Analytics? A Conversation with Michael Meotti, Isaac Kwakye, and Rick Hendra
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.
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Do Industry-Recognized Credentials Help Students Transition to College and Careers? A Conversation with Matt Giani
01/10/2023
Do Industry-Recognized Credentials Help Students Transition to College and Careers? A Conversation with Matt Giani
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 for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that looks at the education and employment outcomes of Texas students who earn IRCs in high school.
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Promoting Equity in College Completion: An Interview with Amanda Janice Roberson and Jinann Bitar
12/19/2022
Promoting Equity in College Completion: An Interview with Amanda Janice Roberson and Jinann Bitar
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— at the Institute for Higher Education Policy and at The Education Trust—about policies and practices to advance equitable student outcomes in higher education, including the federal College Completion Fund.
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Bringing Procedural Justice Principles to Child Support Programs
12/15/2022
Bringing Procedural Justice Principles to Child Support Programs
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 effectiveness of the PJAC model. As part of the demonstration, the PJAC Peer Learning initiative provided training and support to several additional child support agencies that were interested in procedural justice but not part of the PJAC study. In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Michael Hayes and Tanya Johnson from OCSE, Melissa Froehle from Minnesota Child Support Enforcement, and Maria Lasecki, Director of Brown County Child Support in Wisconsin, about the role of procedural justice in child support, how the Peer Learning initiative works, and what the sites have learned so far.
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Is Individualized Instruction the Answer to the Pandemic’s Unfinished Learning? A Discussion with Andy Rotherham and William Corrin
11/03/2022
Is Individualized Instruction the Answer to the Pandemic’s Unfinished Learning? A Discussion with Andy Rotherham and William Corrin
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.
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Training Students for the Green Jobs of Tomorrow
09/22/2022
Training Students for the Green Jobs of Tomorrow
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 , a senior research associate and co-director of MDRC's , on evidence-based strategies that can help create pathways for careers in the green economy for young people.
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Improving Pre-K Assessments: An Interview with Preschool Teachers
08/10/2022
Improving Pre-K Assessments: An Interview with Preschool Teachers
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.
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Improving Pre-K Assessments: An Interview with School Administrators
05/20/2022
Improving Pre-K Assessments: An Interview with School Administrators
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.
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Considerations for Jurisdictions Seeking Pretrial Reform
04/14/2022
Considerations for Jurisdictions Seeking Pretrial Reform
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.
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THE-RCT Database: A New Resource for Analyzing Studies of Postsecondary Education Interventions
01/26/2022
THE-RCT Database: A New Resource for Analyzing Studies of Postsecondary Education Interventions
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.
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Providing Comprehensive Support Services to College Students: An Interview with SUCCESS Students and Coaches
12/09/2021
Providing Comprehensive Support Services to College Students: An Interview with SUCCESS Students and Coaches
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.
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An Innovative Workforce Program: An Interview with Two Coaches from the MyGoals for Employment Success Program
12/06/2021
An Innovative Workforce Program: An Interview with Two Coaches from the MyGoals for Employment Success Program
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, 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.
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Providing Substance Use Disorder Treatment, Recovery, and Employment Services During the Pandemic
08/26/2021
Providing Substance Use Disorder Treatment, Recovery, and Employment Services During the Pandemic
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 , or BEES, funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this episode, talks with researchers from Abt Associates and from MDRC about the key findings from the brief. They are joined by Matthew Brown, Senior Vice President of Administration at Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), one of the programs participating in the BEES study.
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Internships and Apprenticeships in a Newly Virtual Workplace
06/09/2021
Internships and Apprenticeships in a Newly Virtual Workplace
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, talks with , a research associate at MDRC, who recently cowrote a about how employers and trainers have been adapting their services during the pandemic to keep students connected to the labor market.
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How One Home Visiting Model Adapted During the Pandemic
04/06/2021
How One Home Visiting Model Adapted During the Pandemic
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 the program adapted their home-visiting model during the pandemic to continue helping families.
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Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part IV
12/21/2020
Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part IV
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 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 , even as urban and suburban communities recovered. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 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 executive director, the David Tandberg, senior vice president for policy research and strategic initiatives, the (SHEEO) Leslie Daugherty, an education designer at the
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Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part III
12/06/2020
Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part III
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 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 supporting the resiliency of HBCUs; and Noel Harmon, President and Executive Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholars.
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How Can Behavioral Science Help Programs Better Serve Clients During the Pandemic?
12/02/2020
How Can Behavioral Science Help Programs Better Serve Clients During the Pandemic?
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, interviews , a research analyst in MDRC’s (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.
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Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part II
11/14/2020
Rural Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities — Part II
A special series from the Rural Matters podcast This episode is the second of a special four-part series about issues facing rural higher education from our colleagues at the podcast. It is coproduced by MDRC and supported by Ascendium Education Group. In this episode, Rural Matters host Michelle Rathman chats with four individuals committed to improving education in West Virginia: Danielle Vetter, Senior Program Officer at Ascendium Education Group; Stephanie Hyre, Senior Program Officer of The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation; Corley Dennison, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education; and Paul Daugherty, President & CEO of Philanthropy West Virginia. Vetter discusses Ascendium’s priorities in the rural space, including research, building capacity for postsecondary providers, and catalyzing investment and partnerships to create opportunities and open doors that may have been previously closed. Dennison notes how rural West Virginia really is and how important it is to initiate innovative programs, such as one designed to improve developmental education. Dennison also describes the main goal of West Virginia Climbs, supported by Ascendium, that 60 percent of workers in the state will have some kind postsecondary credentials by 2020. Daugherty explains how Philanthropy West Virginia promotes collaboration among government, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropy to bolster communities, an effort that has taken on added significance during the pandemic, especially on the issues of food security and business and survival. Hyre describes the work of the Education Affinity Group, a subset of Philanthropy West Virginia whose priorities include early childhood literacy and postsecondary degree attainment.
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Rural Higher Education: Challenges & Opportunities — Part I
10/29/2020
Rural Higher Education: Challenges & Opportunities — Part I
This episode is the first of a special four-part series about issues facing rural higher education from our colleagues at the podcast. It is coproduced by MDRC and supported by Ascendium Education Group. COVID-19 has caused seismic shifts for postsecondary education. For rural colleges, the pandemic exacerbated issues that have affected students and communities for decades. While 41 percent of urban adults have a college degree, only do. The college access gap between rural and urban areas is : In most states, rural high school students achieve graduation rates similar to urban and suburban counterparts, but their college enrollment rates are much lower. Rural communities have long been confronted with unique education challenges. Chief among them is the digital divide: Many rural areas lack adequate broadband internet infrastructure, which has become even more critical during the pandemic. Only say they have access to the internet at home, compared with 75 percent of urban adults. In areas where internet is available, it can be costly. And students may lack the technology they need to be successful in online learning. In this episode, Rural Matters host Michelle Rathman chats with MDRC’s Alyssa Ratledge; Dr. Jan Miller, Dean of the College of Education and the Director of Online Programs at the University of West Alabama; and Joe Thiel, Director of Academic Policy and Research for the Montana University System. They discuss some innovative programs that rural higher ed institutions are adopting to address the challenges faced by rural communities.
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