This article reviews a project designed to provide welfare recipients working 20 hours a week with an education program at a local community college. The 24 week program included mathematics, English, computer skills, as well as life skills…

While many organizations provide skills training to help low-income people attain and maintain employment, very few provide strategies to aid in the development of employment networks. This article reviews promising practices from around the…

Because community colleges are often affordable, they offer many students the opportunity to gain postsecondary education. It has been found that many students, who start at community college, drop out. Because of this problem, the Opening Doors…

This report uses meta-analysis, a set of statistically based techniques for combining  quantitative findings from different studies, to synthesize estimates of program effects from  random assignment evaluations of welfare-to-work…

This MDRC report examines an array of welfare policies to help States determine which programs and policies best help single parents transition from welfare to work. The report examines the effects of over 25 welfare-to-work programs, including…

Rural low-income families trying to find jobs, maintain employment, and secure longer-term well-being face distinct challenges. In rural labor markets, jobs tend to be scarcer than in urban ones, and the jobs that are available more often involve…

This report examines the effects of welfare and work policies on earnings, welfare benefits, income, stable employment, and stable welfare exits across a range of subgroups using information from random assignment studies of 26 welfare and work…

Drawing from administrative records and survey data collected for the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) during the 1990s, this report extends MDRC's research on whether mandatory employment-focused and education-focused…

Examining federal, state, and institutional programs, the paper presents a framework for understanding challenges to securing comprehensive financial assistance for low-income working students. The paper identifies promising approaches for…

This paper looks at curricular and program redesign strategies being used in community colleges today to speed nontraditional students' advancement from lower levels of skill into credential programs and to shorten the time commitment that…