CEO Library

The brief summarizes the state of the evidence for basic career services—a category of reemployment services—to help unemployment insurance (UI) claimants return to work. The brief closes with a discussion of gaps in the current evidence base and implications of evaluating these kinds of Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program components.

The brief summarizes the state of the evidence about two Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program components: (1) which unemployment insurance (UI) claimants would benefit the most when selected to participate and (2) changes in scheduling practices to increase meeting attendance rates. This brief closes with a discussion of gaps in the current evidence base and implications of evaluating these kinds of RESEA program components.

The briefs aim to inform states about the current status of evidence on Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) programs and strategies. These briefs are intended to be useful to states as they refine their programs and build evidence in response to the legislative and administrative requirements. These briefs describe findings from research on the effectiveness of elements frequently used in RESEA programs. Each of the three briefs reviews and considers the evidence and gaps in one of three subject areas:

The brief explores how the pandemic affected the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program, including how extensively the pandemic interrupted RESEA operations, how states changed service delivery strategies to maintain or restore program operations, and the extent to which those changes could continue post-COVID.

The report presents the results of the evaluation’s implementation study, a multi-method effort intended to provide an up-to-date understanding of states’ current Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) programs, their evaluation plans, and recent programmatic changes in response to new statutory requirements for RESEA established through amendments to the Social Security Act (SSA) and related U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) guidance. Program changes in the wake of the COVID-pandemic are also examined.

The report presents findings on American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) grantee program operations from fall 2017 (approximately two years into the grant when data were first available) through summer 2021, when most grantees had concluded their grant activities and others were close to finishing. The report documents the degree to which grantees collectively met their apprenticeship program registration targets, their apprentice registration targets, and their pre-apprentice program implementation and enrollment targets. It also describes variation on these among grantees.

The technical appendices to The Ready to Work Partnership Grant Evaluation: Findings from the Interim Impact Study of Four Employment Services Programs for the Long-Term Unemployed Report (Klerman, Herr, Martinson, and Copson 2022): Appendix A: Additional Technical Information on Methodology, Appendix B: Data Sources, Appendix C: Survey Methods for the 18-Month Follow-Up Survey, Appendix D: Definitions of Outcomes, Appendix E: Definitions of Base

The report documents the interim findings from the impact study of the Ready to Work (RTW) grant program. This report describes interim program impacts on service and credential receipt, earnings and employment, public benefits receipt, and a range of other employment-related outcomes through approximately 18 months after random assignment of participants into the study. The evaluation also estimates impacts for subgroups based on age, education level, employment status and gender.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Evaluation of the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy (CCCA) Pilot. The program evaluation aims to document the implementation and assess the impact of the CCCA pilot program.

The brief describes how Job Corps and community colleges serve young people, how Job Corps currently works with colleges, and how partnerships between Job Corps and colleges could benefit students, Job Corps, and the colleges. The brief also describes the evaluation’s methods and shares what the Job Corps centers identified as the core principles and practices undergirding their successful college partnerships. These core principles and practices include shared goals, clear roles and responsibilities, constant communication, and accommodating each organization’s different requirements.

Technical appendix to the Evaluation of the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy (CCCA) Final Report: Appendix A: Theoretical Roots of the Cascades Job Corps Model, Appendix B: Cascades Pilot Evaluation Data Sources, Appendix C: Survey Methods for the 18-Month Follow-Up Survey, Appendix D: Additional Technical Information on Methodology, Appendix E: Definitions of Outcomes, Appendix F: Definitions of Baseline Measures, Appendix G.

The report from a Job Corps pilot focused on enrolling students in college to prepare for a career in healthcare or information technology (IT), conducted February 2017 through June 2019 with 488 students from the Pacific Northwest (ages 16-21) with at least a sixth-grade level of competency in reading and math) enrolled in Job Corps’ Cascades College and Career Academy (CCCA). This report describes the pilot vision and the pilot contract, summarizes the findings of the evaluation, and considers some discussion.

The report from a Job Corps pilot focused on enrolling students in college to prepare for a career in healthcare or information technology, conducted February 2017 through June 2019 with 488 students from the Pacific Northwest (ages 16-21) with at least a sixth-grade level of competency in reading and math) enrolled in Job Corps’ Cascades College and Career Academy (CCCA).

The brief is based on lessons from an evaluation: a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a small subset of the 53 TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) programs—three TechHire programs and two SWFI programs—that explored the implementation and short-term impacts of TechHire and SWFI. In particular, this brief focuses on findings from the implementation analysis that was part of the RCT; data sources for the implementation analysis included observations of TechHire and SWFI programs, interviews with staff members, and a review of program participation data.

The brief describes the challenges associated with helping low-income parents with children under the age of 13 pursuing training and employment to access affordable child care. It also proposes solutions that programs may undertake to increase their effectiveness in assisting parents with accessing and paying for appropriate child care. Further, it identifies barriers that remain to be addressed at the systems level.

States participating in the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program use evaluation evidence to continually improve their RESEA programs. The list is an array of resources that states can draw on to support their efforts to grow their capacity, to use existing evaluation evidence, and to develop new evidence. This list is organized by resource type. Some resources are narrowly targeted to a single topic while others cover a multitude of topics.

In 2017 the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in close collaboration with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), contracted Mathematica to evaluate the effect of the Increasing Economic and Social Empowerment for Adolescent Girls and Vulnerable Women Project, (EMPOWER). EMPOWER aimed to reduce child labor in Eastern Province, Zambia by addressing skills gaps that constrain adolescent girls’ and women’s work and livelihood opportunities and facilitating pathways to employment that aligned with participants’ improved skills.

The report features findings from an evaluation of EMPOWER that used quantitative pre-post and descriptive analyses to measure changes in the outcomes for adolescent girls and women and qualitative analysis to contextualize findings. The evaluation’s primary objectives were to determine whether EMPOWER increased participants’ skill levels and, in turn, increased adolescent girls’ access to acceptable work and adolescent girls’ and women’s involvement in self-employment and paid work.

The report presents American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) implementation study findings. The primary data source is interviews conducted during in-person site visits to 10 AAI grantees in spring 2019 and follow-up telephone calls with grant staff in fall 2020. The report documents the design and operation of grant activities and identifies potentially promising practices, implementation challenges, and lessons for future initiatives.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund Trewon Technologies, LLC to conduct the Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC) Training Grants Study. The implementation study and impact evaluability assessment aim to understand the implementation of SCC grantees—community college-based workforce development and career pathways programs in partnership with local employers—as they address disparities in workforce outcomes and build institutional capacity.

The career pathways approach to workforce development emerged to help less educated workers advance to better paying jobs by earning in-demand postsecondary credentials. The approach involves articulated steps of education, training, and employment within an industry sector, combined with other services, to support participant success.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Women’s Bureau, the Office of Unemployment Insurance, and the Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance to fund contractor Mathematica, and its partner Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct a series of studies as part of the Navigator Evidence-Building Portfolio p

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) Reentry Employment Opportunity (REO) Program to fund Mathematica, Inc. and its subcontractors—RTI International and Abt Associates—to conduct the Partners for Reentry Opportunities in Workforce Development (PROWD) Grants Evaluation. The PROWD grants effort is a first-of-its-kind partnership between DOL and the U.S.

The report of the Career Pathways Descriptive and Analytical Project focuses on “mid-level” occupations—occupations that typically require education or experience beyond a high school diploma or equivalent, but less than a four-year college degree. The report presents study findings on the magnitude of the differences between occupations in the career outcomes that entrants go on to experience within 10 years after entering, which occupations are associated with high wage growth, and what traits of occupations predict higher wage growth.

Graphic highlighting several Career Pathway program milestones and improvements from the 1980's through the 2020's.