About the Report

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In the fall of 2010, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) contracted with IMPAQ International, LLC and its partners, Battelle Memorial Institute and Decision Information Resources, Inc., to conduct a process study of the Job Corps program to explore and identify center-level practices that are associated with center performance outcomes. Through an examination of center practices and policies, the paper describes how the researchers sought to identify best practices across centers and assess how these practices may be related to center performance. Center practices in the following domains were examined as part of this study: (1) general center management; (2) academic training practices; (3) Career Technical Training (CTT) practices; (4) student life and development; (5) staff dynamics and culture; (6) center corporate operator oversight; (7) community and partner relations; and (8) center and student characteristics.

Research Questions

• What center practices appear to be associated with high or low center performance?

Key Takeaways

• High-performing centers use more student-focused approaches in addressing student academic performance issues.
• High-performing centers use more proactive approaches to address student disciplinary issues.
• High-performing centers more actively engage students throughout their job corps experience.
• Staff members at high-performing centers are held accountable for center success and are more frequently provided incentives for successful performance.
• High-performing centers have stronger relationships with their Outreach and Admissions (OA) and Career Transition Services (CTS) partners.
• Students at high-performing centers stay on center longer.
• There are few differences in student characteristics at entry between high-performing and low-performing centers.

Citation

Kirsch, M.P., Sacchetti Barnes, M., Benus, J., Johnson, T., Duga, M. Cooper, J. (2014). IMPAQ International. Job Corps Process Study Final 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.