|
The Abstract
|
> Edited by Torie Ludwin, Arnold Ventures (AV)
|
What actually works to improve the lives of the American people?
We want to know the answer.
That's why AV's Evidence and Evaluation team is recommitting to funding rigorous causal studies in 2025. The year begins with two new Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
The “Strengthening Evidence” RFP will fund rigorous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluate innovative social programs and policies.
The “Building Evidence” RFP will fund rigorous, causal research using quasi-experimental methods that align with key AV policy areas, including higher education, infrastructure, contraceptive choice and access, and public finance. We are also adding career education and training – a new field for AV research.
“Our goal is to support relevant, rigorous work that can effectively inform policy decisions and measurably improve outcomes for families and communities across the United States,” said Justin Milner, AV's executive vice president of evidence and evaluation.
Letters of interest (LOIs) are due by Friday, March 14, 2025. Stay tuned for future funding opportunities and new policy fields.
Learn more about these RFPs>
|
|
|
Innovations in Public Safety
|
|
|
Jessie Harney, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Colorado State University
Last year, researchers and practitioners met at Colorado State University to discuss emerging and innovative public safety programs and ways to partner in evaluating them. The “Innovation Day,” part of a new series of events supported by AV, considered ways to evaluate alternative safety models, include the perspectives of impacted communities, address racism, and build the data and infrastructure necessary to use a range of collaborative, community-driven research methods.
Read our Q&A with Jessie Harney about this “Innovation Day”>
|
|
|
|
|
Public Finance
- A new analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that raising the state and local tax (SALT) cap to $20,000 would increase the federal debt by about $225 billion from 2025-2034, assuming all expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are extended permanently. Nearly all the benefit would go to households making $200,000+.
Health Care
Infrastructure
- Urban planning experts including AV's Vice President of Infrastructure Jenny Schuetz talked about the high cost of decades-old parking rules in The New York Times. (free link)
Higher Education
- As the online program manager (OPM) 2U shutters its boot camps, Inside Higher Ed looks at what's next in education and workforce training.
- EdTrust explains what community college students need to succeed when they transfer to four-year colleges and universities.
Criminal Justice
- In Governing, AV Vice President of Criminal Justice Policy Juliene James discusses the promising "Little Scandinavia" effort in Pennsylvania and how prison staff decided to focus on rehabilitation and helping people prepare to reenter society.
- NPR’s All Things Considered has covered the ongoing crisis in our nation’s prisons. In the segment, Matthew Charles, Senior Policy Advisor at FAMM and a spokesperson for the Safer Prisons, Safer Communities campaign, discusses how the crisis is pushing prisons away from their rehabilitation goals.
- The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas’ prisons are so understaffed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is spending tens of millions of dollars on rental cars, hotels, and meals to try to shuttle staff to the worst-affected facilities. The problem is only projected to get worse as the number of people incarcerated in Texas continues to rise.
Evidence and Evaluation
- The Association of Health Care Journalists reported on the launch of the No-Spin Evidence Review, an AV grantee dedicated to countering “overly rosy study abstracts by offering more balanced plain-language summaries of research findings.”
|
|
|
|
|
On April 18-19, 2025, the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs will host the Texas Economics of Crime Workshop. This workshop brings scholars together to discuss cutting-edge research from the economics of crime field. It will include presentations of working papers related to criminal behavior and the criminal justice system.
|
|
|
|
|
- Fox Weather put together a photo essay of the firefighters, National Guard, medics, and others at work to help people suffering from the fires in California.
- The Los Angeles Times highlights the role of the Encino Reservoir as a refill point for firefighters including fire aircraft; check out this overnight time-lapse video of choppers refilling and returning to the fires.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the AV Newsletter.
|
|
You received this message because you signed up for Arnold Ventures' newsletter.
|
|
|
Copyright 2025 3 Columbus Circle, New York NY 10019
|
|
|
|
|