Policy and Program Evaluation
We work with government agencies and community-based partners to rigorously evaluate programs that aim to ensure all students have the opportunity for future success.
Across every project or partner, we work to generate high-quality research about the factors driving education trends and identify evidence-based interventions to support students. Access to good and unbiased data is the common denominator for strong evaluation, which is why we pursue data-sharing agreements with public agencies and seek to make our own data publicly available whenever possible. We focus on policies and programs that are supporting the communities and individuals who face the most significant barriers to success.
From leading randomized controlled trials – the gold standard in research – to evaluating historical and real-time data, the Education Lab uses a variety of methods to rigorously evaluate policies and interventions.
Latest Updates
Help Wanted: Strategies to Recruit a Tutoring Workforce on a Large Scale
MDRC’s Rebecca Davis explores effective strategies for recruiting a tutoring workforce at scale, an essential component of the Personalized Learning Initiative, and advancing educational outcomes through targeted recruitment efforts.
Here’s one roadmap to easing the mental health crisis in teen girls
Education Lab Senior Research Director Monica Bhatt and Youth Guidance Chief Program Officer Nacole Milbrook wrote an op-ed featured in the Chicago Sun-Times on the Working on Womanhood program and their partnership with the city and Chicago Public Schools to systematically provide school-based counseling services to 750 girls.

AbbVie spends $350M to bolster healthcare, education; ‘We look forward to the impact we will make in the decades to come’
Lake County News-Sun’s Steve Sadin highlights AbbVie’s philanthropy including commitments to the University of Chicago Education Lab’s research helping urban youth, “in high schools and beyond.”
