Evidence Reports

NBER (May 2025) posted new findings from the Baby’s First Years RCT, studying the effects of providing unconditional cash transfers to low-income, new mothers in the US. This high-quality RCT found no impacts on any of the study’s primary child development outcomes at the four-year follow-up.

The Annenberg Institute (June 2025) posted an RCT of Zearn Math, a popular software platform, to support math learning for students in grades 3-5. This high-quality RCT found suggestive (not statistically significant) modest effects on state test scores in math after two years of program implementation.

MDRC (April 2025) posted long-term RCT results for ASAP Ohio – a replication of the successful CUNY-ASAP program, which provides academic, personal, and financial supports to low-income community college students. This high-quality RCT found a remarkable 15 percentage point increase in degree completion and 14% gain in annual earnings at the eight-year mark.

The Institute of Education Sciences (November 2024) published RCT findings for two pilot initiatives that offered Pell Grants (federal financial aid) to low-income adults for short-term occupational training programs. These high-quality RCTs found sizable impacts on program completion, but no discernible impacts on the hoped-for economic outcomes: employment or earnings, measured approximately 3-5 years after program completion.

MDRC (March 2025) posted RCT results for Viking ROADS – Westchester Community College’s replication of the successful CUNY-ASAP program, which provides academic, personal, and financial supports to community college students. This high-quality RCT found a remarkable 12 percentage point increase in degree completion after three years.

Wested (September 2024) posted an RCT of ASSISTments, a low-cost online tool that assists 7th graders with math independent practice (e.g., homework) and gives teachers real-time reports on student performance. This high-quality RCT found a sizable gain (~31% of a grade-level) in math scores on the state test at 2 year follow-up.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in January 2025, published an RCT of HUD’s $140 million/year Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program, which provides case management services and financial incentives to housing voucher recipients to promote work and self-sufficiency. This large, high quality RCT found no discernible impacts on employment or earnings over 6 years.

SSRN (October 2024) posted long-term RCT findings for Sourdun, a French “Boarding School of Excellence” for middle and high school students from disadvantaged communities. This high-quality RCT found a remarkable 14 percentage point decrease in the high school dropout rate and 16 percentage point increase in graduation from higher education, 9-12 years after study entry.

New England Journal of Medicine (June 2024) published an RCT of Communities that Heal, a data-driven program that engaged communities in four states to rapidly deploy evidence-based practices to reduce opioid overdose deaths. This large, high-quality RCT found no discernible impact on opioid overdose deaths over 1 year.