American Idea Foundation

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ASSISTments brings technology & evidence-based teaching to middle-school math classes in Maryland

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By: AIF Staff

Since 2022, the American Idea Foundation (AIF) has awarded annual grants to organizations around the country that are developing a base of evidence and data around their programming and that are building on quantifiable metrics and research studies about the effectiveness of their interventions. This year, AIF will be supporting 7 distinct groups working on issues like childhood education, homelessness, proper parenting techniques, and poverty abatement. 

One of the organizations that AIF is proud to work with in 2025 is ASSISTments. 

Developed by Neil and Cristina Heffernan, who began their careers as middle-school math teachers, the mission of ASSISTments is to improve math instruction and comprehension by making learning more evidence-based and more aligned to meet the diverse needs of students. ASSISTments blends tutoring assistance with assessment reporting for teachers and students in fulfillment of the Heffernans’ vision, which was to ensure every student, particularly those in grades 3 through 8, is supported and successful in math classes. 

As the Heffernans’ said during an interview about the maturation of the program:  

“We created ASSISTments to help as many teachers and students as possible. After we learned that the ASSISTments intervention was effective, we set the goal to have every middle school student in the country get immediate feedback on their homework. 

We created ASSISTments to be used by real teachers and have been improving it with each grant. Because of the effectiveness of ASSISTments, we kept getting funded to make improvements allowing our user base to grow.”

ASSISTments aims to improve mathematics education by giving schools access to their proprietary online tools and by providing training for teachers so they can educate students using illustrative assignments aligned with testing-standards and curriculum. 

This tech-based programming also provides instant data to students and teachers, allowing them to adjust their instruction in real-time. The goals are to help students build math skills in real-time, to help them understand that mistakes are part of the learning process, and to utilize data and technological tools to improve test scores and engagement in math. 

 This video shows how ASSISTments works with schools, teachers, and students to improve math scores. 

Because its founders believed in the importance of data and real-time assessments, ASSISTments has developed one of the strongest bases of evidence across education interventions. 

A 2016 randomized controlled trial measured the impact of ASSISTments by studying 7th grade students at 43 schools in Maine. The researchers found that: 

“[The] online mathematics homework intervention produced a positive impact on students’ mathematics achievement at the end of a school year. Students with low, rather than high, prior achievement benefited more. 

The intervention provided students with personalized feedback and hints immediately, more typically, students wait until the next day to know what they did right and wrong and to get help. When students struggled, they had additional opportunities to work toward mastery in supplementary problem sets. The intervention also enabled formative assessment practices for teachers, such as adapting their discussions of homework to fit students’ needs. Specific professional development was provided to teachers to enable them to enact these adaptive practices.”

Ultimately, test scores went up in standardized mathematics assessments and this study spurred additional research into the impact of ASSISTments. 

More recently, a replication study by North Carolina State University was conducted measuring 6,000 students at 63 different North Carolina schools. Though this study was impacted by COVID-19 and changing learning modalities, the study found that students whose teachers used ASSISTments in 7th grade had significantly higher scores on the North Carolina 8th-grade End-of-Grade math test compared to the control group. The effect size was similar to the Maine study and equally important, the positive impact of ASSISTments persisted with improved math scores over time. 

ASSISTments has been recognized by the federal What Works Clearinghouse and is one of the few mathematics-education interventions with credible evidence supporting it. Multiple researchers have found that ASSISTments does 3 critical things: 

  1. ASSISTments provides long-term gains for students, improving test scores over multiple years. 
  2. It narrows the achievement gap, with students of color seeing the strongest effects among subgroups.
  3. It has a more profound impact in schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students and those in resource-limited schools. 

Because of this commitment to evidence and because of the short-term and long-term benefits of ASSISTments, Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced he would provide 24,000 Maryland students with access to ASSISTments from 2024-2028. 

This effort, conducted as part of Maryland’s Partnership for Proven Programs will give participating schools access to ASSISTments, as well as a multi-layered support model that includes: 1) A full-day summer training for teachers, 2) 3-5 in-person coaching visits per year, and 3) implementation planning and regular progress check-ins with schools and district leadership. At the end of the four years, the goal is to see math achievement on standardized tests improve in Maryland and to build the base of evidence around this intervention. 

To understand the real-world impact that ASSISTments is having in classrooms across America, listen to one of the teachers who utilizes it and hear firsthand how it helps her students understand and learn math. . 

With data-driven solutions like ASSISTments, America’s students will have better access to modern educational tools and will have a deeper understanding of mathematics, which will have compounding benefits throughout their lives. The American Idea Foundation is proud to support ASSISTments as this evidence-based intervention helps school districts, teachers, and individual students.

To learn more about the American Idea Foundation’s 2025 grant recipients, click here.  

Family Promise of Wisconsin prevents homelessness & strengthens children, families, & communities

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By: AIF Staff

Since 2022, the American Idea Foundation has offered policy advice, generated awareness, and provided financial support to nearly 30 organizations across the United States. The goal is to help these organizations as they work to alleviate poverty and address complex social challenges in a data-driven, evidence-based way.

In partnering with these organizations that are doing amazing work in every corner of the country, the American Idea Foundation hopes to identify promising solutions that can be studied, scaled, and replicated.

In some cases, the Foundation’s grantees have a long history of working with academic researchers and data scientists to evaluate their programs in a rigorous manner, usually through impact evaluations or randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In other cases, organizations are committed to developing an initial base of evidence to determine if their solutions are truly having a quantifiable impact on those they serve.

Inviting academics to evaluate a program can be a nerve-wrecking experience, but former Speaker of the House and AIF President Paul Ryan believes it is necessary if America wants to break the cycle of poverty and overcome the problems plaguing our communities. In Ryan’s view, it is vital that these front-line organizations match their powerful anecdotal evidence with data and empirically-sound research. By doing so, these organizations will arm policymakers and community leaders with the data and evidence to prioritize what works, deprioritize what doesn’t, and develop a more targeted and effective approach to fighting poverty.

One of the organizations that is committed to developing an initial base of evidence and data around their programming isFamily Promise.

In 2024, AIF partnered with  Family Promise of West Michigan as they, along with Family Promise of Spokane, and the Lord’s Place (located in West Palm Beach), conduct a randomized controlled trial with researchers at Notre Dame’s Laboratory for Economic Opportunities, to study how flexible financial assistance during diversion conversations impacts housing shelter use, housing stability issues, and other outcomes.

The goal of the trial is to determine if individuals who are diverted from homeless shelters, largely through financial assistance or other support services, will have increased housing stability and improved outcomes in terms of income, employment, and overall well-being.

This year, with  the RCT of Family Promise still ongoing, the American Idea Foundation will focus on helping build Family Promise’s capacity in the state of Wisconsin.

Family Promise of Wisconsin is a state-based affiliate of the national Family Promise organization, which works with faith-based and community organizations to move families to stable housing where they can grow and thrive. Family Promise of Wisconsin is focused on ending homelessness by connecting families in need with a suite of services like supplies to meet their basic needs, access to family support and emergency assistance, and other stabilization efforts.

Family Promise of Wisconsin employs a case management model, which means providing individualized, wrap-around support for families and their children during times of great need. The people engaging Family Promise of Wisconsin are often seeking urgent assistance with basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter and Family Promise works tirelessly to address their immediate problems while identifying long-term solutions for shelter.

They try to divert clients away from homelessness and costly shelter stays by instead providing them with alternative temporary housing options. Most individuals who enter emergency shelters tend to remain homeless longer, which is why Family Promise seeks to intervene before that occurs, operating with a lighter touch and supporting individuals as they find alternatives like short-term rental housing or staying with family and friends.

Family Promise uses local resources, volunteers, and organizations to create a network of assistance that keeps families intact and children healthy. As part of the wrap-around support, families are given access to Family Promise services like tutoring, summer programming, and trauma-informed mental health care. The video below provides an overview of their holistic approach.

Across the country, Family Promise has a network of 200 sites in 40 different states. Since 1988, they have helped over 1,000,000 families in times of great need. Most of their families (50%) are minorities and 100% are low-income or no-income. In 2024, they served 25,000 families nation-wide, 50% of whom were minorities and 100% are low-or-no income households.

Family Promise is looking to expand to 8 sites operating full-time in Wisconsin. Thus far, they have served 516 Wisconsin families with 936 children through their four core programs: Prevention, Shelter, Housing, and Stabilization. The support provided by the American Idea Foundation will go towards expanding Family Promise’s operations into areas like Monroe, Ozaukee, and Washington Counties, helping train staff and volunteers, and giving the organization added capacity to help more families and kids with emergency stabilization needs.

As Family Promise summarized in their 2024 Annual Report: “Preventing and ending family homelessness requires a community response. Family Promise maximizes impact through extensive partnerships and collaborative contributions at the national level, as well as through local businesses and community organizations within every community.” The American Idea Foundation is proud to assist them in this noble endeavor and help build a base of evidence that hopefully validates the profound impact Family Promise is having in Wisconsin and around the country.

To learn more about the American Idea Foundation’s 2025 grant recipients, click here. 

Replicating the Transformative Impact of Catholic Charities’ Padua Project

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By: AIF Staff

Since his time as a Member of Congress, American Idea Foundation President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has believed the case-management model utilized by Catholic Charities of Fort Worth is an effective way to help individuals out of poverty.

As Fort Worth Inc. described when profiling Catholic Charities of Fort Worth’s approach:

“Catholic Charities isn’t handing out scholarships or money; they’re guiding students to make the right decisions and navigate challenges. The goal is to help individuals move from survival jobs to career roles, teaching soft skills that lead to promotions.

As Paul Ryan says, “What the Padua Project is doing is more than just helping people get jobs or improve housing — they’re helping them achieve their God-given potential, building a more just society.”

How does the Padua Project work?

Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), which has partnered with Catholic Charities of Fort Worth on empirical studies, described the Padua Project this way: 

“The backbone of Padua is wrap-around, “supercharged” case management that involves a two-person team of social workers and begins with building a relationship with clients. The Padua model ensures a high level of personal support for each client. Clients work with their teams to set goals related to asset areas that are key to clients’ long-term success including finances, education, social skills, legal status and physical and emotional well-being.”

The services provided by Catholic Charities Fort Worth through the Padua Project fall into one of five “Out of Poverty Pathways” and include:

  • Education: Offering counseling and support for educational milestones.
  • Emotional Resiliency: Providing counseling referrals, long-term case management, and mental health programs.
  • Employment: Assisting with job searches and career coaching to help clients secure and succeed in employment.
  • Financial Resiliency: Teaching financial skills for long-term independence.
  • Resource Stability: Offering short-term relief, support for new mothers, and comprehensive refugee services.

It’s a high-touch, labor-intensive care modality designed to help people get back on their feet over the long-term. And it’s delivering results.

Catholic Charities’ approach to expanding upward mobility has been the subject of multiple randomized controlled trials, each with incredibly promising findings, and though there have been challenges along the way, the “Padua Project” has made an enormous impact helping those struggling in Fort Worth, Texas.

Because of this hands-on, comprehensive intervention, people like Keith Collins have benefitted. As Cynthia Allen summarized in a Fort Worth Star Telegram op-ed:  “According to CCFW, participants in the Padua Pilot on average increased their liquid assets by over $5,000, reduced their debt by over $2,000, and experienced a 23% increase in full-time employment. In two years time, 73% of those who entered the program not housed were stably housed and working toward self-sufficiency, and those who came into case management stably housed had a 36% in full-time work and a 34% increase in monthly earnings.”

Additionally, Notre Dame’s RCT found real improvements in self-sufficiency and labor market outcomes for Padua participants:

  • 25% more likely to have full-time employment than the control group.
  • Monthly earnings were 18% higher after 2 years, compared with the control group.
  • 43% of participants reported improved health after two years.

When Catholic Charities Fort Worth began the Padua Project, the organization’s leadership set a goal of helping 10,000 families get out of poverty in 10 years. They have currently assisted 5,700 families out of poverty and they have done so in an academically rigorous, quantifiable way which allows their program to be replicated, scaled, and improved upon. Due to this approach, the Padua Project is not only helping local families every day in Texas, but they are also providing a successful template for others to follow in their communities.

In a 2021 policy panel hosted by Notre Dame and the American Idea Foundation, Dr. Jim Sullivan spoke to the importance scaling successful solutions that are rooted in data and evidence, saying in part:

“The way you get the policy at a national level is to build the evidence at the local level. If we can demonstrate that it can work with Catholic Charities, is it because Catholic Charities Fort Worth is so good [or] can we replicate it? If we can replicate the Padua Project in a lot of the community providers in Dallas, then let’s spread it to other cities and let’s apply it in other contexts, like for prisoner re-entry or for refugee services. This comprehensive case management model works and as you build the evidence, it becomes more and more compelling.”  

During a 2019 visit to Catholic Charities while he was Speaker of the House, Ryan summed up the Padua Project’s impact succinctly, saying in part: “Organizations like Catholic Charities are doing heroic work in our communities to fight poverty. This is among the keys to breaking the cycle and getting more people into good-paying jobs…. The case management system is the best possible system. It’s individual, it’s focused, it’s customized.”

Because of their impact and because of the strong base of evidence in support of their “Padua Project,” the American Idea Foundation has awarded a 2025 grant to Catholic Charities of Fort Worth so they can scale, replicate, and study their program’s effectiveness in other U.S. cities.

The American Idea Foundation is proud to work with Catholic Charities Fort Worth, Franchise for Good, and Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities as they expand the Padua Project into other communities that are struggling with persistent and multi-generational poverty. Because of their fidelity to evidence and their proven model, Speaker Ryan wholeheartedly believes the transformative results seen in Texas will be found in other areas where the Padua Project expands.

To learn more about the American Idea Foundation’s 2025 grant recipients, click here.