The first large-scale, random assignment study of the effects of secondary school math teachers from Teach For America and the Teaching Fellows programs found they were as effective as, and in some cases more effective than, teachers receiving traditional certification. The study was sponsored...

In 2008, Congress created the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program to fund alternative training programs that draw highly qualified teachers to high-need schools. Funded under this grant, teaching residency programs (TRPs) are designed to attract new teachers to the profession. The programs...

Recent media attention has suggested that some children who are certified as eligible for free school lunch may in fact be ineligible because their family income is too high. This report presents the result of a case study of the process used to identify and detect these types of errors,...

Mathematica’s random assignment study of alternative routes to teacher certification tracked 2,600 students in 63 schools in 20 medium and large school districts in 7 states during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years; focused on less selective alternative certification programs...

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. In 1965, Congress established the Talent...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends millions of dollars each year to provide scholarships to an elite group of highly talented undergraduate science students from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage them to pursue careers in biomedical research. Mathematica’s evaluation...

Presents descriptive information on program implementation from the national evaluation, including detailed statistics on Talent Search project hosts and target schools; project staff and organization; and program participants, services, and activities based on data collected from a survey of...

This report provides an executive summary of the findings from the evaluation, including an outcomes evaluation and a process analysis, for which we gathered information from participant focus groups, program staff, other NIH staff, and administrative data to understand how the program has been...

In 1990, the U.S. Department of Education established a math and science initiative within Upward Bound, a federal grant program designed to provide disadvantaged high school students with skills and experiences that will prepare them for college success. The Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS)...

Assesses the feasibility of estimating the impacts of the program, which helps disadvantaged middle school and high school students prepare for, apply to, get financial aid for, and begin attending college. Examines three evaluation options: 1) estimating impacts of the program as a whole in the...