The AmeriCorps Urban Safety Program (AMUS) aims to improve public health and safety in Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan.

The AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) builds a portfolio of evidence around the agency’s mission and its programs. As a follow-up from the first State of the Evidence report published in 2017, this 2023 State of the Evidence report synthesizes key themes from studies produced by or for AmeriCorps from 2017 to 2022 with the goal of describing the state of the evidence where the agency seeks to make an impact.

At the completion of service, AmeriCorps members are invited to complete the Member Exit Survey (MES). This report presents data related to measures associated with civic engagement from the MES for years 2017 to 2021. “Civic Engagement” is one of the four pathways (alongside Cultural Competency, Getting Things Done, and Life and Career Skills) that articulate the AmeriCorps member theory of change. 

The Total Learning Classroom (TLC) program supports whole-school learning outcomes in kindergarten through third grade by providing schools with Scholar Coaches, who are AmeriCorps members trained in evidence-based literacy interventions and deliver effective literacy tutoring to students and support teacher-led priorities, and Systems Coaches, who provide ongoing coaching to Scholar Coaches and help school leaders with decisions and practices that affect entire grades or the whole school. 

The Promise Fellow Program is an intervention designed to prevent dropout amongst students in grades 6-12 in Minnesota that show early warning signs of school disengagement. The program is led by interventionists known as Promise Fellows and provides three research-based supports that align with the National Dropout Prevention Center’s “Basic Core Strategies”: caring adults, service-learning, and out-of-school supports.

The Ohio Education Research Center (The Ohio State University) evaluated the Ohio College Guides program which places AmeriCorps volunteers in school-based, college access programs. Student-level records from the school district as well as the Ohio Department of Education and National Student Clearinghouse were used to evaluate the impact of the college guides program. 

The Blueprint Math Fellows program is a hybrid path tutoring program run by the nonprofit organization, Blueprint Schools Network. Blueprint’s Math Fellows program includes four key components: in-person and online live group tutoring, use of the web-based math learning platform ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces), family engagement, and student incentives. The pilot project studied for this evaluation included tutoring and web-based math learning platforms provided to middle school students during their scheduled school day, five days a week in 45-minute sessions.