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The 2018 amendments to the Social Security Act (hereafter “the Statute”) permanently authorized the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program, required that states’ programs be supported by evidence, and allowed states to use up to 10 percent of their RESEA grant for evaluations. Developed as part of the Evaluation to Advance RESEA Program Evidence, the evidence-building options report aims to serve as a resource for decision makers to understand and weigh options for developing evidence of various types. Specifically, for a wide range of options, the document considers: What should be evaluated? How should that be evaluated? Who (states, consortia of states, or the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)) should initiate the particular evaluation? When should that evaluation occur? And how can the state workforce agency’s capacity to conduct evaluations be strengthened?

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Key Takeaways

• The evidence-building options report serves as a resource for decision makers to understand and weigh options for developing evidence of various types on various timelines. Specifically, for a wide range of options, the document considers: What should be evaluated? How should that be evaluated? Who (states, consortia of states, or DOL) should initiate the particular evaluation? When should that evaluation occur? And how can the state workforce agency’s capacity to conduct evaluations be strengthened?
• Research may be funded and directed by individual states, a consortium of states, or DOL. States’ input and management is crucial: they administer the programs and most of the evaluation funds. The DOL can also leverage its national perspective and awareness of state RESEA plans to catalyze and support inter-state coordination when required, such as to execute design options that require larger samples than most states can develop independently.
• Evidence building challenges exist, but DOL is well-positioned to help states address them: Evidence-building challenges across states include: the need for very large sample sizes to conduct adequately powered impact studies; program variation across states may make partnering on consortia evaluations more difficult; states have an intrinsic incentive to not conduct their own evaluations and instead ‘free ride’ on others’ evaluations; generalizability challenges make it difficult for states to know which evidence to use when informing their own programs; states may be (knowingly or unknowingly) conducting studies that are not capable of providing high quality evidence that demonstrates program effectiveness; the RESEA legislation incentivizes serving more people by providing outcome payments based on number of participants served, which disincentivizes random assignment designs that require a control group; and, the emerging timelines states are on to complete evaluations and produce new causal evidence is not timely to meet FY23 requirements. These challenges imply DOL has an important role in setting appropriate policies; providing evaluation technical assistance to states; facilitating inter-state coordination; and developing new evidence that takes advantage of results from across states in support of the nationwide program.

Citation

Klerman, J.A., Nightingale, D., Clarkwest, A., Epstein, Z. (2022). Options for Building Evidence on RESEA Programs. 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.