About the Report

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The Young Parents Demonstration (YPD) is a federal grant initiative, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA) and Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) to test the effectiveness of enhanced services in improving educational and employment outcomes for at-risk parenting and expectant youth. The focus of this report is on the 13 YPD Rounds I and II grants awarded in June 2009. YPD grantees were required to implement a differential experimental research design, whereby treatment group members received an additional level of services above and beyond the base level of services provided to the control group. The treatment intervention, which was determined by each grantee, was aimed at improving employment and earnings of participants, as well as improving chances that participants would obtain additional educational degrees and certifications.

In 2010, DOL/ETA contracted with Capital Research Corporation and The Urban Institute – along with subcontractors, Abt Associates/ABT SRBI, Westat, Inc., and The George Washington University – to conduct process/implementation and outcome/net impact evaluations of YPD. The aim of the process/implementation evaluation effort was to provide DOL/ETA with a detailed description of the treatment and control group interventions as they were implemented in each site, including information about the types of services provided, participant flow through services, and implementation challenges. The impact evaluation study component was aimed at estimating net impacts of the treatment (i.e., the service enhancement provided to treatment group participants) on employment and earnings of Rounds I and II participants.

The report presents impact results from the first two rounds of YPD grants, examining employment and earnings outcomes for young parents randomly assigned under the demonstration effort to treatment and control groups. Additionally, this report presents key findings and lessons learned from the implementation study component of the evaluation, which focused on the services provided by YPD grantees to participants.

Research Questions

• What were the enrollment goals under the demonstration effort, and did grantees achieve them?
• What were the characteristics of participants served by YPD and how did these characteristics vary across grantees?
• What types of services/assistance did treatment and control group participants receive under the demonstration?
• What were the overall costs and per-participant costs of serving YPD participants and how did these costs vary across grantees?
• To what extent were there statistically significant differences in employment and earnings outcomes for the treatment and control groups?
• How did net impacts on key outcomes of interest vary across YPD sites for the treatment and control groups?
• If net impacts were found between the treatment and control group in the short-term (e.g., two years after random assignment), were they sustained over a longer period of time (e.g., at five or more years after random assignment)?
• How did YPD impact results compare to results in past experimental studies targeting at-risk youth and young parents?

Key Takeaways

• Employment and earnings impacts were the focus of the Round I/II impact study evaluation. The main finding of the impact analyses using quarterly UI wage record data was that the YPD intervention had a positive and statistically significant impact on the cumulative earnings of program participants through two years after random assignment (when participant data were pooled across the 13 Rounds I and II grantees). However, an exploratory analysis of earnings for the sixth year after random assignment for a subgroup of YPD participants indicated that earnings gains reported through two years after random assignment faded overtime and by the sixth year after random assignment there were no measurable statistically significant differences in earning between the treatment and control groups.
• In exploratory impact results for YPD grantees individually through two years after random assignment, there were few cases where statistically significant employment and earnings impacts were detected.
• Taken together, the main findings from the impact and implementation studies suggest that the service enhancements provided by YPD Rounds I and II grantees led to increased cumulative earnings at two years after random assignment, but these earnings gains evaporated by the sixth year (and perhaps earlier).
• YPD participants were predominantly female (78 percent), never married (90 percent), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients (62 percent), unemployed (88 percent), and had less than 12 years of education (64 percent). On average, participants were 19.6 years old at intake. Relatively few YPD participants were employed at intake – those who were employed had low paying jobs (paying less than $10 per hour). About one-quarter of YPD participants were enrolled in school at intake (23 percent).

Citation

Trutko, J., Eyster, L., Vericker, T., O’Brien, C., Barnow, B., Trutko, A., Mendonca, S., Dodkowitz, A., Sick, N. (2018). Capital Research Corporation. Young Parents Demonstration Program: Rounds I and II Grantee Implementation and Impact Results. Final Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Division of Research and Evaluation, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.