About the Report

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The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to “conduct a multistate study to develop, implement, and build upon career advancement models and practices for low-wage healthcare providers or providers of early education and child care” (29 U.S. Code § 3224(b)(4)(I)). In response, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) at DOL funded the Career Pathways Design Study and contracted with Abt Associates to develop evaluation design options that could address critical gaps in knowledge related to the approach, implementation, and success of career pathways strategies generally, and in early care and education specifically (given the scarcity of information on it relative to healthcare).

This report provides information on potential research approaches to answering key questions about career pathways strategies that were identified as most relevant to the workforce development field and that also are less likely to be fully addressed by current ongoing research. It outlines a range of design options informed by completed and ongoing studies. These options also reflect the current state of implementation of career pathways program- and system-level initiatives, as well as respond to DOL’s interest in improving employment and earnings outcomes for youth and adults.

Research Questions

• What impacts do career pathways programs have on participants’ advancement through multiple, progressively higher levels of education and training, and associated jobs, within a pathway over time? To what extent do participants move beyond entry-level training and employment, even over a long follow-up period?
• Which components of career pathways programs are the strongest drivers of impacts? To what extent is the impact of a combination of career pathways components greater than that of any individual part? That is, are certain components more effective when bundled together?
• For what groups are career pathways programs most effective? To what extent can career pathways approaches influence groups not commonly included in career pathways research to date? And which components matter most for which subgroups?
• In the absence of career pathways programs, to what extent, and how, do workers advance on their own through multiple, progressively higher levels of education and training, and associated jobs, within a pathway over time? To what extent is advancement more common for workers from specific settings or backgrounds? To what extent do wages increase for workers who progress through these pathways? What are the implications for designing and evaluating career pathways initiatives?
• What roles in career pathways initiatives is the workforce system playing as compared with other entities that more commonly lead these strategies, such as community and technical colleges?
• What are the costs associated with a given career pathways program to participants, funders, and employers, including opportunity costs? What do those costs “buy”? And to what extent are the benefits worth the cost?

Citation

Peck, L., Zeidenberg, M., Cho, S., Litwok, D., Strawn, J., Sarna, M., Martinson, K., Schwartz, D. (2018). Abt Associates. Career Pathways Design Study, Evaluation Design Options Report. 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.