Students learn or progress at their own paces. How can schools make sure that they get the help they need — and only the help they need? Many are turning to multi-tiered systems of support. This brief provides some practical considerations for schools contemplating tiered approaches.
Lessons from MDRC Evaluations
More and more schools are using multi-tiered systems of support to deliver students the right amount of help when they need it. MDRC has evaluated several such systems — eight, in fact. This brief summarizes some lessons about tiered systems of support drawn from those evaluations.
Communities In Schools (CIS) works to integrate a variety of support services for students to keep them on a path to graduation. MDRC’s evaluation consisted of a quasi-experimental study of the whole model and a randomized controlled trial of one of its components — case management for students at higher risk.
A Case Study of Communities In Schools
Many students in high-poverty schools face serious challenges such as housing instability and hunger, and the stress in their daily lives can affect their school attendance and performance. CIS aims to address these challenges. This brief describes how the organization has used evaluation findings to enhance and modify its services.
School choice systems can be complex and confusing for low-income families. In the search for solutions, researchers and policymakers may have overlooked lessons from other policy arenas. This issue focus suggests strategies from MDRC’s experience designing and evaluating interventions to support low-income people’s decision making in arenas outside P-12 choice systems.
The Importance of Evidence
In this essay, adapted from remarks made to the Growth Philanthropy Network/Social Impact Exchange 2014 Conference on Scaling Impact, MDRC President Gordon Berlin explains why developing reliable evidence of effectiveness is critical when expanding programs to a large scale.