FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Howard Bloom, chief social scientist for MRDC, a nonpartisan education and social policy research organization, will give a lecture titled “Can Small High Schools of Choice Improve Educational Prospects for Disadvantaged Students?” at noon on Friday, Oct. 31, at the University of Arkansas.

The lecture is part of the series sponsored by the Department of Education Reform. It starts at noon in Room 343 of the Graduate Education Building, and RSVP is requested for a light lunch. RSVP online by 1 p.m. Oct. 29.

Bloom began working at MDRC in 1999, after 21 years of teaching research methods, program evaluation and applied statistics at Harvard University and New York University. MDRC is dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor, according to the company website.

Bloom leads the development of experimental and quasi-experimental methods for estimating program impacts, working closely with staff members to build these methods into their research.

He has been a principal investigator of many randomized experiments and rigorous quasi-experiments, including, among others: a study of the impacts of 105 new small public high schools in New York City, a re-analysis of the national Head Start Impact Study, a study of the impacts of alternative social and emotional interventions for students in Head Start programs, the National Impact Study of Reading First, the National Job Training Partnership Act study, the Canadian Earnings Supplement Project for displaced workers, and the Delaware Displaced Worker Study.