Presentation at the Dropouts in America conference, Harvard University, January 2001. Argues that we do not yet have a menu of program options for helping students at risk of dropping out and suggests a way to identify approaches that program developers can use while efforts to develop a...

Summarizes the largest federal study ever conducted of dropout prevention programs, finding three promising models: alternative middle and high schools for those at risk of dropping out, programs aimed at helping older students earn a GED, and whole-school restructuring efforts aimed at dropout...

This paper presents evidence on after-school programs’ effects on behavior from the national evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program. Findings come from both of the study’s components: (1) an elementary-school component...

This final report from Mathematica’s congressionally mandated study of educational technology presents effects for the 2005-2006 school year for 10 computer-based reading and math products. Teacher experience using the software was not systematically related to changes in effects between...

This article presents evidence from the elementary school component of Mathematica’s national evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Center afterschool programs. The findings indicate that the programs affected the supervision students received after school, with parents less...

These remarks, presented at the Brookings Institution's Stakeholder Forum on After-School Programs, reflect on lessons from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers study that can benefit future education evaluations. Specifically, the author calls for consistent weighting of the evidence,...

Argues that we do not yet have a menu of program options for helping students at risk of dropping out and suggests a way to identify approaches that program developers can use while efforts to develop a stronger scientific basis for new programs continue.