How do we know that Project GRAD is working?

Recognizing that evaluation was crucial to the development and refinement of the Project GRAD model and that independently reported results were essential to assessing GRAD’s potential impact, Project GRAD instituted what is, to date, one of the most extensive evaluation processes of any school reform program. GRAD began this evaluation very soon after it was launched as a fully developed model. Project GRAD does not use objective data merely to prove its performance; it uses the data to improve its performance. This focus on results has ensured and enhanced Project GRAD’s success and brought it to the forefront of education reforms.

Funded by a grant from the University of Houston, evaluation began in Houston in the 1994–1995 school year. In that year, the first feeder system of nine schools was studied. As GRAD expanded in Houston to include five feeder systems the evaluation was expanded to include them all. Their conclusion is highlighted adjacently.

By the year 2000, Project GRAD had expanded from Houston to Atlanta, Columbus, Los Angeles and Newark. The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a leading research firm with a 25–year history of evaluating promising social policy interventions began an independent five-year evaluation of each of these five expansion sites.

The national evaluation addresses the following three questions:

• How was Project GRAD implemented in the expansion sites and what are the lessons emerging from this experience?
• What were the outcomes for schools and students after Project GRAD was put in place?
• How did this differ from what would have happened had Project GRAD not been implemented?

Previous experience has shown that by the end of two to three years of implementation, Project GRAD produces significant evidence.