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Appendices to the Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Youth Use of Workforce Services in Virtual Contexts Final Report: Appendix A: Resources for Learning More About Behavioral Insights and How to Use Them for Continuous Improvement, Appendix B: Supplementary Details on Study Context and Design, Appendix C: Technical Details on Impact Estimates, and References.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in collaboration with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), funded contractor Mathematica, with Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct the Reentry Project Grants Evaluation.

The report presents the findings from the Reentry Project (RP) Grants implementation study, which includes analysis of data from virtual sites visits with 27 sites that received 2018 or 2019 grant or subgrant awards, a grantee survey administered to all 2017, 2018, and 2019 grantees, and Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) records dating from program year (PY)2018 Q1 to PY2021 Q2 or July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. This report focuses on grantee survey findings and analysis of data from WIPS for 2018 and 2019 grantees.

As part of its support of Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is committed to collecting and creating information in a way that supports data sharing and dissemination. Toward that end, DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) hosted a series of three seminars during August 2022 on topics directly relevant to sharing data, protecting confidentiality, and building a culture to support sharing and responsible use. The one pager provides a summary of the seminars.

The brief draws on literature on risk/needs assessments in the criminal legal system and grantee survey data collected from 89 community-based organizations (CBOs) that were awarded U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Reentry Project (RP) grants from 2017 to 2019.

To assess the effectiveness of criminal justice policies, programs, or reforms, researchers frequently examine recidivism, defined as the return to criminal activity after a prior sanction (Council of State Governments Justice Center 2014; Deady 2014; National Institute of Justice 2022; Pratt and Eriksson 2013).

The brief draws on data collected from virtual site visits with 27 Reentry Project (RP) grantees to identify the industries grantees commonly focused on, describe industry-specific training they used, discuss the development of industry partnerships, and provide insights for connecting individuals with justice involvement to locally in-demand industries. Site visit data included interviews with 33 employers; together with grantee interviews, the visits highlighted successes and challenges grantees experienced when engaging and partnering with employers.

The brief describes the 116 Reentry Project (RP) grantees funded in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and aims to address the research question, “What are the variations in the model, structure, partnerships, and services of the grants?” To answer this question, descriptive statistics from survey data collected in all three grant years was used to summarize and highlight findings about RP program structures, partnerships, and services, in addition to chi-squared tests to determine whether any differences across grant years and grant types were statistically significant.

The brief highlights the service needs that interviewed Reentry Project (RP) participants reported when leaving incarceration; their barriers to employment; their experiences during and after they participated in the programs; their perspectives on program elements such as vocational training, supportive services, and job placement; and their recommendations for improvement.

Using data collected as part of the Reentry Project (RP) Grants Evaluation, the brief describes the differences and similarities between adult and young adult grantees in terms of the services they offered and the implementation challenges they reported. The analysis draws on quantitative data from a survey of all 116 organizations that received RP grants. Data from the grantee survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as chi-squared tests to determine whether differences across grant types were statistically significant.

The brief draws on a variety of sources, including survey responses from 89 Reentry Project (RP) grantees, interviews with RP program staff and partner organizations from 27 sites, interviews with 37 RP participants, interviews with 41 employers, and national workforce data from the Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) all with the aim of describing the types of work-based learning (WBL) provided to RP participants, RP programs’ experiences in offering WBL opportunities to justice-involved individuals, and some lessons learned from offering WBL to the reentry population.

The Reentry Projects (RP) Grant Evaluation Design Pre-Specification Plan follows the template that evaluators must use to meet the pre-specification practices articulated in OMB Memo M-20-12 Phase 4 Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018: Program Evaluation Standards and Practices.

In 2019, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Urban Institute, Mathematica Policy Research, and Capital Research Corporation to design and conduct analysis to build and expand the evidence portfolio on apprenticeships, including models, components, partnerships, and strategies that often include the work of community colleges. 

The environmental scan sets the stage for a series of briefs that will be published under the State Apprenticeship Systems Capacity Assessment study. The study will conduct a deep dive into state-level Registered Apprenticeship systems in the United States, exploring how the public sector and its partners are supporting and implementing Registered Apprenticeship programs, including the use of more inclusive and equitable strategies and models.

In the paper, the researcher aimed to study the major predictors of disability onset for older workers in the United States and the role of various employer accommodations in retaining newly disabled workers in the workforce using nationally representative data.

Are female, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian claimants for unemployment insurance (UI) more likely than white non-Hispanic claimants to see their claims disputed by an employer? And are these UI claimants ultimately more likely to have their UI claims denied, either by the UI agency or following a dispute? In the paper, the researchers address these questions by examining UI administrative wage and claim records from Washington state during 2005:Q1–2013:Q4.

The paper examines the effect of increasing the size of unemployment insurance (UI) transfers on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the U.S. from April 5 to May 2, 2020. As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed on March 27th, 2020, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program increased UI payments by $600 per week (Courtney, 2020). It took states different amounts of time to comply with the U.S.

The report provides background on youth apprenticeship programs in the U.S. to provide context for finalizing the design of the implementation evaluation of the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants (YARG). The report also summarizes the planned activities of the 14 grantees and the key features of each grantee’s youth apprenticeship model and discusses key issues to include in the implementation evaluation.

The brief develops a typology of five different models of youth apprenticeship expansion used by Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants (YARG) grantees across their registered apprenticeship programs. The typology is based on information collected from the YARG grantee applications, follow-up clarification calls with grantees, and the grantees’ quarterly narrative reports to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The models are not proscriptive templates for individual registered apprenticeship program standards.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to fund contractors Westat Insight (formerly Insight Policy Research) and Urban Institute to conduct the Study of Occupations and Skills Related to Occupations in Construction under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis and Apprenticeship Evidence-Building portfolios of studies.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor American Institutes for Research (AIR), and their partners Abt Associates and Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct the Evidence to Action (E2A) at DOL: Portfolio Project & Process Study. This portfolio project builds on existing studies, evaluation technical assistance, communications, capacity building, and related efforts to grow the culture of evidence at DOL.

The report provides a snapshot of how Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) grantees adapted or expanded strategies to serve older workers in response to challenges faced during the pandemic. Strategies include (1) adopting new recruitment outreach, intake, and engagement activities; (2) promoting digital access and technology loaner programs; (3) providing training remotely; (4) adopting new host agency and employer strategies; and (5) implementing staffing strategies to support SCSEP participants’ needs.

The technical appendices to The Ready to Work Partnership Grant Evaluation: Findings from the Final Impact Study of Four Employment Services Programs for the Long-Term Unemployed (Klerman, Herr, and Martinson 2022): Appendix A: Additional RTW Impact Study Technical Information, Appendix B: Demographic Comparison of RTW Samples to U.S.

The brief explores the employment and earnings of applicants to the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant program before and during the COVID pandemic. When the RTW program began offering services in 2015, it targeted workers who had lost their job during or after the 2007-2009 recession and remained long-term unemployed or/and experience to become re-employed in higher-paying middle- or high-skill jobs.

The brief documents the impact of four Ready to Work (RTW) programs on participants’ service and credential receipt through 18 months after random assignment, and on participants' employment and earnings through three to four years after random assignment.