CEO Library

The brief describes evidence-to-date on career pathways generally, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) grantmaking approach, and the extent to which grant-funded colleges implemented key elements of career pathways (defined for purposes of this brief as those in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)). It also examines additional ways colleges used the grants to build career pathways systems.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes implementation findings from the Round 3 third-party evaluations, for which grantees procured third-party evaluators as part of their grant-funded projects. This report focuses on the capacity-building activities the Round 3 grantees implemented to support “systems reform innovations” or “systems changes” within and across institutions to provide education and training to adult learners leading to high-demand jobs.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes impact findings from 23 Round 3 third party evaluations that used quasi-experimental methods to estimate the impact of the TAACCCT projects on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Evaluators used statistical strategies to draw comparison groups that were similar on observable characteristics to the TAACCCT participant groups.

In 2015, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Mathematica and Social Policy Research to conduct the Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) for Disconnected Youth National Evaluation. The goal of the study is to identify and document the extent to which the P3 initiative increased coordination across federal agencies and programs to allow local communities the flexibilities they need to support disconnected youth.

The brief provides reflections from four evaluation technical assistance (TA) liaisons based on their experiences in working with grantees awarded as part of a Federal interagency initiative, Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3). The brief, (1) describes the P3 program’s TA supports, (2) reviews the roles and responsibilities of different types of P3 partners, and (3) describes the hurdles faced when working with partners and strategies to mitigate those hurdles.

The report is one in a series of implementation study papers of the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3) National Evaluation, which was contracted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) on behalf of the Federal partners supporting P3. It assesses P3 four years after its initial authorization, and is based on data collected from interviews with Federal agency staff and two rounds of site visits to the nine original (Cohort 1) pilots, conducted between 2016 and 2018.

The report from the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3) evaluation’s implementation study reflects on the early experiences of the nine Cohort 1 pilots. The data primarily come from interviews with pilot stakeholders conducted in spring and summer 2017. Across the nine pilots, the evaluation team interviewed 169 stakeholders, including P3 administrators, staff, and partners. The report begins by describing P3 as envisioned by the Federal government, describes the nine pilots to provide context for the emerging findings, and then presents the early findings.

The guide provides resources to support the recipients of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) National Health Emergency (NHE) Dislocated Worker Grants, for demonstration projects and disaster recovery, as well as other interested parties, in their efforts to provide employment services to people affected by the opioid crisis, help employers address opioid use disorder in the workplace and support affected individuals, and develop the health care workforce to help address the opioid crisis.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Mathematica Policy Research with Social Policy Research Associates and the Council of State Governments Justice Center to conduct the Pathway Home Reentry Evaluation. The study aims to develop design options for an impact and implementation evaluation to assess the feasibility of conducting an impact evaluation and examine the implementation of the Pathway Home Reentry Grant program.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund Abt Associates to conduct the Support to Communities Grant Program Evaluation. This implementation study aims to provide new and critical information on promising practices and implementation challenges in providing services that address both employment and treatment needs for those with opioid use disorders (OUDs) and substance use disorders (SUDs).

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Research Portfolio Project.

The report, the second of the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) project’s implementation study, examines the evolution of YCC program implementation, and focuses on the third and fourth years of the grant, when grant funding was scheduled to end. It also examines grantee approaches to sustainability of YCC activities and services as they approached the end of grant funding.

Using data collected throughout the implementation of the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) grant, the final report describes how grantees recruited employer partners and maintained employer and workforce agency partnerships; the services and activities partners provided; and plans for sustaining partnerships after the grant ended. The report draws on a mix of quantitative and qualitative data from three sources that bring together information at different time points. Appendix B provides details on each of these data collection efforts relevant to this report.

In 2020, Chief Evaluation Office, in collaboration with VETS, commissioned an implementation evaluation of the VETS Transition Assistance Program (TAP) Apprenticeship Pilot Evaluation under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies. Results of the study are intended to inform future efforts by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Urban Institute and its partner the Capital Research Corporation to conduct the Implementation Evaluation of the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants (YARG) under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies.

In 2020, Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Apprenticeship (OA) and the Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR) within the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractors Urban Institute and Mathematica to conduct the State Apprenticeship Capacity Assessment under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies.

The report summarizes the evidence on program models for serving justice-involved adults and young adults through connection to employment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and case management services. The primary evidence of the effectiveness of these models comes from a review of experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations. Information about factors that may contribute to the successful implementation of the models comes from a review of outcome evaluations and implementation studies.

As of January 2017, 1.9 million people remained in the ranks of the long-term unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017). Starting a business, or self-employment, may offer a path for some of these people to return to work. The Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program, which operated from 2013–2017, was funded by the Employment Training Administration (ETA) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to test and evaluate strategies to support dislocated workers who wanted to start their own businesses.

Appendices to the Self-Employment Training (SET) Pilot Program Evaluation Final Implementation Report that include SET program design, evaluation, findings from analysis of set baseline application, findings from analysis of MIS data, analysis of survey and interview data on implementation, and analysis of interview data on participant perspectives on SET.

In an effort to spur regional economic growth, five Federal agencies collaborated to award grants in 2011 and 2012 to 30 self-identified regional innovation clusters focused on specific high-growth sectors through the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC) and Advanced Manufacturing JIAC (AM-JIAC) initiatives. Participating agencies included the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA); U.S.

In 2019, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration to fund contractors MDRC and Abt Associates to develop research and evaluation framework options that will support the Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure a strategic, continuous learning process responsive to Job Corps’ evidence-building needs.

The report presents interim findings of the Pathways evaluation consisting of an implementation study and a descriptive outcomes study. The purpose of the outcomes study is to document program outputs and participant outcomes. The purpose of the implementation study is to:

The brief presents an overview of key institutional features of the AJC service delivery system across the country that shape day-to-day operations and customer experiences. To do this, researchers identify common patterns and variations in (1) administrative One-Stop Operator structure and AJC management, (2) AJC partner programs and staffing, (3) funding and resource sharing, (4) data systems and sharing, and (5) AJC services.

The brief describes the role and activities of One-Stop Operators in 40 comprehensive American Job Centers (AJCs). It provides an overview of the types of entities that served as Operators, the roles that Operators played, common supervision models, and the key activities of AJC managers in day-to-day center operations. It concludes with a description of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) One-Stop Operator requirements and identifies some general concerns raised about these changes as local areas prepared for their implementation.

The brief describes how 40 comprehensive American Job Centers (AJCs) selected to participate in the Institutional Analysis of AJCs shared resources. It opens by reviewing resource sharing requirements under Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and then outlines the extent to which the study AJCs shared resources at the time of the study's data collection.