Current Research and Evaluation Projects
National Job Corps Study: Findings Using Administrative Earnings Records Data
This report presents longer-term findings from the National Job Corps Study based on an analysis of administrative earnings records. Two sources of administrative data were collected for the study: (1) annual social security earnings (SER) data reported by employers to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and (2) quarterly wage records reported by employers to state unemployment insurance (UI) agencies in 22 randomly selected states. The report addresses two questions: (1) Do survey and administrative earnings data yield similar impact estimates of impacts on earnings during the periods covered by both data sources? and (2) What are estimated impacts on earnings in the two and a half years beyond the four-year period covered by the survey?
The report’s findings include: (1) The pattern of the estimated impacts using the survey and administrative data are similar in periods covered by both data sources. However, the survey-based impact estimates are larger and more often statistically significant. (2) Based on the administrative data, the estimated impacts for the full sample in years 5 to 7 after random assignment are all near zero, and none are statistically significant. (3) The earnings impacts for those 20 to 24 years old at program application appear to have persisted and Job Corps may be cost-effective for this group. The report provides impacts for only seven years after program application and thus the possibility cannot be discounted that positive earnings impacts might re-emerge in the longer term.
2005-06:
Evaluation of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP)
The QOP demonstration provided mentoring and other intensive services to academically at-risk youth in schools with high dropout rates. The demonstration operated in seven sites and was designed to increase high school graduation, post-secondary enrollment rates, and other outcomes among predominantly minority youth in inner-city schools. The random assignment evaluation will measure the impact of QOP on high school graduation, post-secondary enrollment, and other outcomes. Follow-up data collection occurred four years and seven years after random assignment, with final data collection scheduled for nine years after random assignment, i.e., in the fall of 2004, five years after scheduled graduation. The final evaluation report is scheduled for 2006. The short term impact report is available on the Web at the link below.
2003-05: The Quantum Opportunity Program Demonstration: Implementation and Short-Term Impact Reports (2003)
Evaluation of the Job Corps Program
The Employment and Training Administration completed a ten year evaluation of the National Job Corps Study. In June 2001, the Employment and Training Administration released the National Job Corps Study's cost benefit and longer term impact reports. These studies reported that: Job Corps makes a meaningful difference in participants' educational attainment and earnings; the gains from Job Corps are found across most groups of students and types of settings; and the value of Job Corps' benefits exceeds its costs. The entire series of Job Corps Evaluation reports are available through the links below. The data on which these reports are based are now available to the general public and interested researchers through the public use-data set, as well.
National Job Corps Study Reports
Evaluation of the Center for Employment Training (CET) Replication
CET provides a combination of basic and vocational skills training, closely tied to private sector jobs. In 1993 and 1994 ETA funded grants to several areas to replicate the CET model. The impact study will measure the effectiveness of sites replicating the CET model in serving disadvantaged youth ages 16 to 21. The study follows 1,485 out-of-school youth were randomly assigned to CET or a control group between the last quarter of 1995 and the third quarter of 1999, looking at long term impacts. Long-term follow-up surveys are expected to be completed in 2004 with a final report by mid 2005. The short term impact study was released in May of 2003 and is available at the link listed below. This report summarizes the implementation findings and presents initial impact findings based on a random assignment research design and a survey conducted 30 months after application to CET.
2003-04: Working with Disadvantaged Youth: Thirty Month Findings from the Center for Employment Training Replication Sites
Evaluation of the Unemployment Insurance Benefits Program
The evaluation is intended to provide detailed, empirical information on the effectiveness and impact of the UI program in light of its goals and underlying premises. The study will identify: changes in the labor market, population and economy pertinent to the UI program, detailed characteristics of who receives and does not receive UI benefits; the macro- and micro- economic impacts of the program; and UI's role in preventing dispersal of workers, sacrifice of skills and breakdown in labor standards. Overall, the evaluation is intended to provide fresh data and data analyses that can be used in developing policy and in planning future research, including demonstration projects. This evaluation will build on, update and expand the extensive foundation of past UI research. The evaluation will employ multiple research strategies, including telephone surveys, econometric simulations, and new analyses of administrative data from UI and other programs. As yet unknown are other approaches that may be used, pursuant to their being proposed for this solicitation and accepted by ETA. The evaluation will be conducted over 5 years beginning in July 2004.
Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program
The evaluation is intended to generate information that will serve multiple purposes, informing development of 1) administrative guidance, 2) technical assistance, and 3) legislation and budgetary proposals prior to expiration of the Act in 2007. It will include a process analysis focusing on activities at the state and local level and non experimental net impact study. The evaluation began in January 2004 and will be conducted over 5 years.
Study to Estimate the Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Self-Directed Labor Exchange Services
The evaluation will study the impact and cost-effectiveness of self directed labor exchange services. The planned evaluation includes both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The heart of the research design will entail the estimation of the impacts of the use of self-services by comparing the outcomes of a large sample of self-services users who are UI claimants with a comparison group of claimants who do not use these services. This analysis is supported by a range of analytic components, including the administration and analysis of a survey of local areas to characterize self service systems, the analysis of administrative data from a variety of sources for large samples of self-services users and the comparison group, the administration and analysis of a survey of self-service users (including employers and job seekers) to supplement what is available from administrative sources, and multiple rounds of site visits to a selected sample of local areas to provide an in-depth characterization of self-service systems. The study began in July 2001 and is expected to conclude in 2005.
Youth Offender Demonstration Project and Evaluation
ETA initiated the multi-phased Youth Offender Demonstration Project in 1999 to increase the employability of 14-24 year-old youth offenders, gang members, and youth at risk of court or gang involvement. The project was designed to assist vulnerable youth gain long-term employment at wages that prevent future dependency and break the cycle of crime and juvenile delinquency. The Round Two demonstration tested, based upon Round One findings, promising organizing methods coupled with workforce development and reentry services to help youth offenders get education, training and jobs by linking juvenile justice and youth development, training and labor exchange activities with One-Stop centers. The project has been implemented in three consecutive rounds of grants. The first round was completed in December 2002, and the second round was completed in December 2003. A third round of projects began in June 2002.
The evaluation of the this project will develop cross-site analyses to assess the Demonstration's success in effectively providing core reentry services and employability skills and employment for youth offenders, gang members and youth at risk of gang or court involvement. The evaluation consists of a project model study and an outcomes study. Together the two prongs of the evaluation will strengthen DOL's understanding of the factors that affect successful programs for members of the target population and of the mechanisms through which persistence and progress are achieved. The evaluation will produce an interim report in October 2004 and a final report in December 2005.
Youth Offender Demonstration Project Process Evaluation (Final Report)
Youth Offender Demonstration Project - Round One; Final Technical Assistance Report
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