For the past several years, the California State University (CSU) has been investigating a proposal to add one year of high school quantitative reasoning coursework to the current CSU first-year admissions requirements, often referred to as A-G courses. Qualifying quantitative reasoning courses would include courses in mathematics (area C),…

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that in 2016 over four million young people in the United States were "disconnected," meaning they had not been enrolled in school in the previous three months and were not working. Although this number has fallen in the years since the Great Recession (which officially ended in 2009), as the…

In 2015, the Annie E. Casey Foundation partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service's Social Innovation Fund to launch Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP), a multimillion-dollar initiative to increase employment and educational opportunities for young people ages 15-25 who have been involved in the child welfare and…

In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, youth unemployment in the United States reached its highest level since the Second World War. Only about half of young people ages 16 to 24 held jobs in 2013, and recent estimates suggest that about one in five people in this age range were neither working nor in school. This paper draws from…

Too many talented students who go to under-resourced schools do not achieve their full potential. Though they may perform very well relative to their classmates, these students do not receive the same kinds of academically challenging opportunities throughout their educational journey as do their counterparts in better-resourced public and private…

This summary describes the Head Start CARES research project, which evaluated three classroom-based approaches to enhancing children's social-emotional development: (1) The Incredible Years Teacher Training Program; (2) Preschool PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies); and (3) Tools of the Mind--Play. The three social-emotional…

In the past four decades, profound changes in the U.S. economy--including falling wages, widening inequality, and the polarization of jobs at the top and bottom of the education and wage distributions--have had dramatic implications for the labor-market fortunes of young adults. Only about half of young people ages 16 to 24 held jobs in 2014, and…

The prospect of a well-paying job for a worker without a college education has significantly dimmed in the past three decades, in the wake of sweeping changes in the U.S. economy and labor market. The effects of these changes are particularly devastating for young people from disadvantaged urban communities. In response to this issue, the SEED…

MDRC develops and studies programs to help young people who face major barriers in finding a path to stable adult life. Their recent roster of youth-related projects mainly targets three groups: at-risk high school students; dropouts disconnected from school and work; and system-involved youth at risk of disconnection, including youth exiting…

Despite progress on many fronts, young men of color still face many obstacles to success in American society and suffer disproportionately from economic and social disadvantage. In recent years, foundations and state and local governments have launched major initiatives to address this pressing issue. For example, in 2011, the City of New York…

MDRC hosted a recent colloquium to celebrate their 40th anniversary and the contributions of former Board Chair Robert Solow. This paper summarizes a panel presentation featuring Frank Levy, Richard J. Murnane, Cecilia E. Rouse, and Ronald F. Ferguson, who discussed current challenges in education and how MDRC's research can help address them.

In 2002, New York City embarked on an ambitious and wide-ranging series of education reforms. At the heart of its high school reforms were three interrelated changes: the institution of a district wide high school choice process for all rising ninth-graders, the closure of 31 large, failing high schools with an average graduation rate of 40…

Previous research suggests that school-based mentoring programs like those offered by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) yield small but statistically significant improvements in the academic performance of mentored students and in their beliefs in their own scholastic efficacy. The present study uses data from a randomized control trial…

In the United States, 1.6 million young people between 18 and 24 years old are out of school (lacking either a high school degree or General Educational Development certificate) "and" out of work. These "disconnected" young people face significant barriers to economic opportunity and distressingly high odds of becoming involved…

This paper uses data from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS), a nationally representative multisite randomized trial, to quantify variation in effects of Head Start during 2002-2003 on children's cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes relative to the effects of other local alternatives, including parent care. We find that (1) treatment and control…