Fogle, Ben, 1973- author

Fleet, Katherine, author

Natusch, Amber Lynn, author

Messner, Kate, author

Benjamin, Ali, author

Gonzales, Kathryn, author

Polak, Monique, author

Jocelyn, Marthe, author

Troïanowski, Johan, author, illustrator

Longo, Jennifer, author

Alexander, Kwame, author

Larochelle, Alexandra, 1993- author

Danis, Naomi, author

Banks, Kate, author

This presentation series offers education researchers across the Chicago region an opportunity to learn about each other’s work, interact informally, and support the field of education research in Chicago.

The employment rate among people with disabilities has consistently been low. People with disabilities face many barriers to securing competitive, integrated employment, such as lack of access to transportation, difficulty finding a job, and needs for workplace accommodations. Mathematica is evaluating the SourceAmerica Pathways to Careers program, a customized employment service model designed to help people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or autism obtain competitive integrated employment that matches their skills, interests, strengths, and abilities. This webinar featured a panel of experts who will discuss how Pathways promotes competitive integrated employment, give an employer’s perspective on partnering with Pathways and hiring its participants, present interim evaluation outcomes, and report on SourceAmerica’s plans to expand the customized employment service model.

Through the Parents and Children Together evaluation, Mathematica researchers are contributing to the evidence base regarding approaches to increase positive father involvement in children’s lives. At a forum on December 7, researchers, program administrators, and program participants shared their experiences and what they learned.

The Child Care and Early Education Policy Research Consortium (CCEEPRC) provided a forum for researchers and policymakers to investigate emerging research findings, questions, and methods that relate to improved outcomes for children and families. Several Mathematica researchers presented on topics such as: child care quality measures, support for home-based care providers, and research on coordinated services for children and their families.

Recent federal policy changes require state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies to expand service delivery to transition-age youth and young adults with disabilities. These expanded services intend to improve youth’s preparation for college and employment.

Finding and interpreting relevant evidence can be a frustrating experience for many policymakers.

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.

Mathematica and OPRE hosted a webinar on September 17, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Presenters shared insights into strategies for developing trauma-informed systems of care and lessons from programs that address trauma among fathers.

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson launched his “Great Society” agenda, where do we stand when it comes to providing services, as well as economic and social mobility, to those in need? Between 1964 and 1968, President Johnson launched and implemented a huge range of social programs known as the “Great Society” agenda. Fast-forward fifty years, the form and efficacy of these programs are being questioned at every level of government. On October 2, Mathematica partnered with Government Executive and Route 50 to explore the future of these social programs and look at ideas for reform that are being tested across our nation, as well as the data behind them.

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 current earnings rules for Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) specify that, after using available work incentives, DI beneficiaries are not owed a DI benefit check if they earn more than a certain threshold. The Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) tested a design intended to encourage DI beneficiaries to work by replacing the so-called cash cliff with a ramp—a $1 reduction in benefits for every $2 of additional earnings. BOND simultaneously tested the new rules with two groups: a nationally representative sample of DI beneficiaries and a group of recruited and informed volunteers—those thought to be most likely to earn more than the earnings threshold. Results from the five-year evaluation of BOND are now available for both groups.

A key challenge for policymakers is creating a pipeline of principals who are prepared to serve as instructional leaders. Districts often use the assistant principal position as a training ground for new principals. Yet little is known about how to design and implement on-the-job training opportunities that prepare assistant principals to serve as principals.

The goal of the webinar is to expand local and state leaders’ knowledge of teacher survey instruments to enhance the evaluation of school leaders.

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.

Mathematica brought together leaders from a variety of sectors to discuss the challenges of becoming data driven and offer action-oriented, accessible advice on how organizations can take their first steps, or their next steps, to progress together.

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.

While many industries have increasingly turned to data science to make informed business decisions, social service organizations and government agencies have been slower to fully embrace the potential of current and emerging data science methods. The challenges are real.

This webinar explored how best to prepare educators to implement culturally responsive pedagogy, including and exploration of how programs train future teachers and school administrators and what changes programs may need to consider to effectively prepare these educators.

Hear from ACOs about their approaches to improving care delivery, and from CMS about new policy opportunities.

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.

Mathematica is seeking innovative ideas on how to help youth who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) improve their employment outcomes as they transition to adulthood.

Join us for a webinar for a discussion about the role of evidence in a continuous improvement process and how a free, online platform—the Evidence to Insights Coach—can help educators generate the evidence they need when they need it.

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.

With school buildings closed by COVID-19, schools and districts across the country are rapidly (and sometimes frantically) transitioning to remote learning.

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