About the Brief

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To inform future research on career pathways approaches, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to understand the state of the field and develop evaluation design options. Abt conducted knowledge development by scanning career pathways studies and initiatives implemented as of February 2017 and consulting with 44 experts, then created a menu of evaluation design options to answer priority research questions. The brief gives a short overview of the project’s four reports.

Key Takeaways

• The review of 52 studies found limited published research on more fully developed career pathways initiatives; considerably more will be learned from ongoing studies and practice in coming years.
• Among 12 impact studies reviewed, most found positive effects on education outcomes and positive or mixed effects on earnings, within generally short- or medium-term follow up periods.
• The scan of 128 implemented initiatives revealed a stronger focus on career advancement out in the field – particularly in healthcare, manufacturing, information technology and business – than is captured in research findings to date.
• Program-level career pathways initiatives appear much more common than system-level ones.
• Few comprehensive career pathways approaches exist in early care and education; rather, researchers found other promising practices aimed at addressing barriers specific to ECE worker advancement.
• Questions of interest to the field not fully addressed by existing studies could be explored with a range of evaluation designs and data; researchers describe a menu of possible evaluation options.

Citation

Strawn, J., Schwartz, D. (2018). Abt Associates. Career Pathways Design Study Findings in Brief. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.