- MDRC
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MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor. It was originally named the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. Headquartered in New York City, MDRC designs and studies new approaches to the problems confronting public education; low-income children, families, and communities; and low-wage workers and people with serious barriers to employment. Working in fields where emotion and ideology often dominate public debates, MDRC is seen as a source of objective, unbiased evidence. From welfare policy to high school reform, MDRC’s research has frequently helped to shape legislation, program design, and operational practices across the country.
History
Created in 1974 by the Ford Foundation and a group of federal agencies, MDRC is best known for mounting large-scale random assignment evaluations of real-world policies and programs targeted to low-income people. It helped pioneer the use of random assignment — the same highly reliable methodology that is used to test new medicines — in the evaluation of such policies and programs.
Once known primarily for evaluations of state welfare-to-work programs, today MDRC is also studying public school reforms, employment programs for ex-prisoners and people with disabilities, and programs to help close the academic achievement gap. The organization has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Federal Government of the United States to conduct valuable research in every state and major city in America. MDRC helped create a sister organization in Canada (SRDC) and is currently managing a large project in the United Kingdom with British partners.
Current Organization
Led by President Gordon L. Berlin, MDRC is organized into five policy areas: K-12 Education, Postsecondary Education, Family Well-Being and Child Development, Low-Wage Workers and Communities, and Welfare and Barriers to Employment.
External links
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