Education and Youth
Administrators, teachers, parents, and students must make difficult decisions about education, from pre-school all the way through to higher education. As education becomes a larger investment both for governments and families alike, being able to access, understand, and act upon data that informs those decisions is an invaluable resource. Matrix helps stakeholders make sense of the information available to them to achieve the greatest impact while expending the fewest resources. We aid our clients in gathering relevant data, creating key metrics, benchmarking performance against the best practices in the field, and incorporating knowledge from the global evidence base to ensure informed decision-making. We bring in lessons learned from other sectors and assess the costs and benefits of different decisions. By presenting relevant information clearly, Matrix fosters an informed decision maker, equipped with the tools to create a better educational environment.
collegemeasures.org
| Recent Project: | CollegeMeasures.org |
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| Client: | American Institutes for Research |
| Timeframe: | 2010-2011 |
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CollegeMeasures.org provides key outcome measures for 1,576 four-year public and private colleges in the US. The website makes it simple to strategically evaluate the performance of colleges and state systems in order to identify areas for further analysis and focus. Scenario modeling tools are included which make it easy to set targets using comparative data and conduct “what if” analyses in order to see the impacts of potential changes in performance.
The website focuses on seven key outcomes measures. These include: graduation rates, first-year retention rates, education-related cost per student, cost per degree, student loan default rates, and the ratio of student loan payments to earnings for recent graduates. In addition, we created a measure for “cost of attrition” which quantifies the amount of money a college spends to educate first-year undergraduate students (first-time, full-time) who do not begin a second year. Further detailed data is provided for each of the seven measures.
Early Warning System
| Recent Project: | Early Warning System Tool v2.0 |
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| Client: | National High School Center |
| Timeframe: | 2010-2011 |
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The Early Warning System (EWS) Tool v2.0 is an Excel-based tool that enables schools and districts to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out of high school and to monitor these students’ responses to interventions. A redesigned and enhanced adaptation of the National High School Center’s original Early Warning System Tool v1.0, released in 2008, the new tool has enhanced functionality and features, including the capability to: customize the tool settings; modify indicator thresholds; integrate pre–high school indicators; import student-level data; assign interventions to students; and produce student- and school-level summary reports.
In addition to a nationally-available version of the EWS, Matrix has also developed customized versions upon request for certain states. Matrix is continuing to work with the National High School Center to develop the next version of the Early Warning System in 2011.
Effectiveness of Support Measures
| Recent Project: | The Effectiveness of Support Measures alongside Anti-Social Behaviour Enforcement Action for Young People |
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| Client: | UK Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) |
| Timeframe: | 2008-2011 |
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In March 2008, the Youth Taskforce – set up by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) – published an Action Plan to take forward its key mission of improving the behaviour and opportunities of vulnerable young people. To achieve this, the YTF is investing £13m over the next three years, setting up 52 Challenge and Support Projects in areas where crime and anti-social behaviour are a problem. In October 2008, Matrix was commissioned to evaluate the use and effectiveness of these support measures, alongside anti-social behaviour enforcement action. The primary objectives of Matrix’s research are:
- to understand what support is provided to young people who receive different types of anti-social behaviour enforcement action and how this varies by type of behaviour and type of young person
- to measure the effectiveness of the combination of support and enforcement in reducing anti-social behaviour and young people’s progress into the criminal justice process;
- to identify and measure young people’s outcomes when they receive a combination of support and enforcement;
- to understand the relationship between the quality of support and enforcement received by young people and their subsequent outcomes.
The overarching approach is to understand ‘what works, for whom and in what circumstances’. This research is scheduled to continue until March 2011.