In 1968, Mathematica led the nation’s first major social research experiment, helping to spur a revolution in the application of social science to public policies and programs. For more than four decades, social scientists have revised and refined those methods, but the gold standard for research remained much the same.

In a special super session at APPAM’s 40th Fall Research Conference, APPAM president-elect Matt Stagner joined a roundtable discussion with industry CEOs who are working to apply insights from our modern data revolution to social science questions and challenges that have spanned generations. Abt Associates CEO Kathleen Flanagan, Impaq International CEO Avi Benus, Mathematica CEO Paul Decker, MDRC president Gordon Berlin, and Urban Institute President Sarah Rosen Wartell shared the most important lessons from their work to advance evidence-based policy, as well as the critical challenges and emerging trends in policy analysis and program improvement.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 changed several aspects of the law concerning access to health insurance that were particularly salient for people with disabilities. These changes included removing limits on preexisting conditions, extending parent’s health insurance coverage of young adults until the age of 26, expanding Medicaid to more adults with low incomes, and making it easier to obtain affordable coverage outside the traditional employer-sponsored benefit system.

Recognizing that school leaders play a critical role in school performance, states and districts are rethinking how they prepare principals. But this retooling of preparation programs raises a number of important questions: What skills do new principals need? How can we identify aspiring principals with the potential to develop those competencies? And how can we use these insights to improve the training of leaders at all levels of the system, from teacher leaders to principal supervisors?

In the past two decades, many federal and state Medicaid initiatives have been designed to rebalance the long-term services and supports (LTSS) system by increasing access to home and community-based services (HCBS) in order to reduce the use of expensive institutional care.

International development programs are designed to make lasting and positive improvements in the health, education, and income of disadvantaged people around the world.

This webinar defined educational inequity and discussed its implications. It included a brief introduction to culturally responsive pedagogy and what broader systemic changes may be necessary to implement equity and culturally responsive pedagogy.

This webinar explored research on culturally responsive pedagogy and what is known about its effectiveness.

This webinar explored how a school and district have approached the challenge of implementing culturally responsive practice. It elaborated on programs, policies, and practices that were implemented to support efforts to achieve equity and use culturally responsive pedagogy.

Interested in learning how to build more evidence into philanthropic practice? Join Mathematica, The Wallace Foundation, and the Afterschool Alliance for a Grantmakers for Education webinar.

Chronic absenteeism is particularly high in the early grades, compared with elementary and middle school. For a young child to succeed and develop a strong foundation for learning, he or she must attend school regularly.

This webinar highlights three research-to-practice partnerships between state and local policymakers and the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic to address this challenge, connecting educators and policymakers with researchers who provide analytic support and help education agencies build capacity to conduct their own analyses.

The spread of COVID-19 has caused schools and districts across the country to shutter their doors. States, districts, and schools must suddenly and unexpectedly grapple with the new reality of providing a quality education to every student remotely.

This webinar will review the research on the home and parenting characteristics that support young children’s learning.