Evaluation of “I Have a Dream”® Projects

National evaluation of the IHAD program is challenging because of the size, diversity, and longevity of the IHAD projects. The following excerpt is from an independent evaluation that has been conducted on the “I Have a Dream”® Foundation model and programs.

Levine, Arthur and Nidiffer, Jana. (1996). Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers. (Arthur Levine is the President of Teachers College, Columbia University)

“Perhaps today’s most talked about program for increasing college access for the poor [“I Have a Dream”®] is one that employs more of the lessons from our study than anything else we have observed. It reaches kids when they are young, provides enrichment activities, builds mentor teams, thinks locally, and plans individually.”

“The results of Lang’s efforts were astounding. Ten years after he first made his promise, 90 percent of the P.S. 121 sixth-graders had graduated from high school or obtained a GED degree. (The original estimate, based on prior history, was that at least 75 percent of the students would drop out of school.) After high school, 50 percent of the students went on to postsecondary education.”

“IHAD not only gives the poor a chance at the whole world of higher education– it also opens every sector of higher education to the full spectrum of poor young people.”

“Of all the strategies discussed, IHAD is the most intensive. Not only does it begin the earliest in students’ lives, but it lasts the longest and has the greatest potential continuity. IHAD is at least a ten-year intervention – three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and four years of college; it can be even longer if the program starts in fourth grade. Also, it can include every aspect of a child’s life – home, school, friends, and community. This comprehensiveness and sustained activity is unique to I Have a Dream – it is a long-term developmental strategy.”

“I Have a Dream is one of the most effective programs ever attempted for increasing access to college by the poor. It shows just how powerful comprehensive programs can be if they incorporate the full range of lessons that the …students in our study taught us.