Performance-based scholarships have two main goals: (1) to give students more money for college; and (2) to provide incentives for academic progress. MDRC launched the Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration in 2008 to evaluate the effectiveness of these scholarships in a diverse set of states, institutions, and low-income student…

The expense of attending college is one factor that may explain why low-income students often drop out of school. In California, despite generous state aid and relatively low fees at community colleges, many low-income students still have substantial college-related costs that they cannot cover. To compound matters, federal support for students…

Although a growing number of individuals are enrolling in college in response to the increasing payoff to higher education, more than a third of them never finish. College completion rates are especially disappointing for low-income students, in many cases because they tend to enter college underprepared academically but also because they have…

The Lifelong Learning Demonstration (LLD) in the Greater Baltimore area was designed to encourage adult workers to invest in education and training (ET) to upgrade their skills, productivity, and earnings. To test achievement of this objective, an evaluation estimated LLD's impact on school enrollments, number of credits earned, receipt and amount…

This volume is one of the products of the "knowledge development" effort implemented under the mandate of the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. It describes the Career Advancement Voucher Demonstration, which tests whether Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)-eligible youth can be effectively served by…

In March 2000, thirteen grants were awarded as part of the Individual Training Account/Eligible Training Provider (ITA/ETP) Demonstration. In summer and fall of 2000, the grant recipients' activities were subjected to an interim evaluation. Site visits were made to each grantee to determine what ITA policies and practices were being formulated,…

Policies and practices were identified that have led to the success of exemplary programs in adult vocational education in Ohio. Data were collected from adult vocational education personnel, students, and employers located in five exemplary planning districts. All districts had a full-time supervisor for adult programs, employed full- and…