MDD partners with NYC elementary schools to provide a transformative learning experience fort under-resourced New York City public elementary school students. MDD’s commitment to measurable student outcomes has resulted in the following scientific studies and findings.
Johns Hopkins University
Roisin P. Corcoran, PhD’s 2018 peer-reviewed evaluation and research found that MDD’s Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity© program is “evidence-based.” Students’ 4th grade NYS Reading Assessment English Language Arts (ELA) scores rose a “statically significant” amount after they completed MDD’s innovative 16-week dance and literacy program.
Click here to download a PDF of An Embodied Cognition Approach to Enhancing Reading Achievement in New York City Public Schools: Promising Evidence.
William T. Grant Foundation
William T. Grant Foundation supported MDD’s Professional Learning Program’s Trauma-Informed Teaching Seminar. MDD launched its seminar for teaching artists in response to long-term observations of the effects of trauma on our New York City public school elementary students’ learning.
New York University
A 3-year longitudinal NYU sociology study of MDD’s Partnerships program conducted by a professor-researcher and over 100 undergraduate and graduate students at a Lower East Side school indicated improved math test scores, writing skills, and classroom behavior.
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School’s Social Return on Investment (SROI) study: “For every $1.00 contributed to MDD there is a $2.11 benefit to society.”
Students’ Journal Writing
MDD has tracked its students’ dance journal writing for over 15 years. Its annual evaluations include exemplars of students’ writing, vocabulary, creativity, and social and emotional learning.
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts called MDD’s seven-year sequential PreK-5 education program “a national model.”