| Principal Investigator: | Kelly S. Mikelson, PhD |
| Sponsor(s): | Center for Identity, The University of Texas at Austin |
| Project Duration: | October 2014 – March 2015 |
| Description: | This 6-month project is funded by and conducted for the Center for Identity at the University of Texas at Austin. The Ray Marshall Center (RMC), which is part of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, is conducting the evaluation led by Kelly Mikelson, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Research Scientist, and Christopher T. King, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at RMC. Overall Objectives:
RMC researchers will be conducting in-depth in-person and telephone interviews with the Center for Identity’s key partners, employer representatives, and government agencies in Austin, Washington, DC, and four other cities nationwide. Researchers will be gathering information about education and training needs for identity management, security, and privacy. The information will be used to hone and further develop the Center’s MSIMS degree program and will culminate in a Final Report and recommendations in mid-April 2015. |
| Reports Available: |
Measuring 2-Generation Effects of Capital IDEA Program Participation
| Principal Investigator: | Christopher T. King, PhD |
| Sponsor(s): | Capital IDEA |
| Project Duration: | June 2014 – May 2015 |
| Description: | The purpose of this research is to determine whether parental participation in Capital IDEA increased the share of participants’ children who completed high school and entered college upon graduation, and furthermore whether that participation increased the share of children who persist in and complete college. Additionally, this research examines whether participation in Capital IDEA enhances the parent/child relationship in ways that may increase the future likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment among younger children. By matching student outcome data to parents participating in Capital IDEA programs, this project will contribute to the field of education by assessing whether or not particular program characteristics among Capital IDEA participants had a strong effect on the educational outcomes of their children, who were enrolled in greater Austin area high schools and graduated between 2006 and 2012. Little is known about the effects on older children of participation in education and training programs that lead to enhanced career advancement and improved earnings for parents. Findings that children of Capital IDEA participants had stronger educational attainment outcomes than their comparison group counterpart peers would indicate that two-generation strategies may be an effective strategy to close achievement gaps. |
| Reports Available: | Measuring Two-Generation Effects of Capital IDEA Program Participation Authors: Kristin Christensen and Tara Smith Date: May 2015 Publication Type: Report, 9pp |
Harvard EdCast: Preventing Summer Melt
Dr. Lindsay Page, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a researcher on the Summer Melt:IES project, along with colleague Ben Castleman were featured on the weekly series discussing “summer melt,” which entails recent high school graduates being accepted to college but then decide that going to college was not for them. Listen to the discussion from September 3, 2014 here. You can also purchase their book titled Summer Melt: Supporting Low-Income Students Through the Transition to College via the Harvard Education Press.
Summer Melt-IES: Digital Messaging for Improving College Enrollment and Success
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD (RMC) and Christopher N. Avery (Harvard) |
| Sponsor(s): | Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Harvard University |
| Project Duration: | July 2014 – June 2017 |
| Description: | This project includes two parts: the first focuses on digital messaging to improve FAFSA completion and the second focuses on digital messaging on the entire college application process.
Successful completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a key milestone on the pathway to college for many US students. Yet, the complexity of the FAFSA completion process creates barriers to college access and success particularly for students from low-income backgrounds and those who would be the first in their family to attend college. For example, college-intending students may fail to file their FAFSA at all, may delay filing and miss priority deadlines, or may fail to successfully complete steps in the income verification process, if required. In this project, we will marry data available through Apply TX on individual students’ FAFSA completion status, local FAFSA completion supports, and text messaging as a low-cost and effective means of communication to provide students and families with targeted information about the FAFSA and their status in the FAFSA completion process and to connect them with additional FAFSA support when needed. We will implement this project in selected high schools during the 2014-2015 academic year. Outreach will focus on Class of 2015 high school seniors. The second part of this project will follow a similar structure but will broaden the scope of the text-based outreach. In particular, we will send text messages to students beginning in their junior year of high school and continuing through the summer after their senior year in high school. The goal of the messages is threefold: (1) to provide college and financial aid information in a simplified, digestible manner; (2) to deliver timely reminders of important application and financial aid tasks; and (3) to provide students with guidance on how to successfully complete these tasks. By starting outreach early in the college admissions timeline, we will be able to message students about a broad range of college-related tasks, including college entrance exam registration and test taking, college applications, FAFSA completion, and pre-matriculation college transition tasks (e.g., signing master promissory notes). Note: Description of this project edited from that by Dr. Lindsay Page, University of Pittsburgh. Full description can be found here: Summer Melt IES Description |
| Reports Available: |
Evaluation of a DOL TAACCCT Grant Program: Austin Community College’s Health Professions Academy
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, MPA |
| Sponsor(s): | Austin Community College, Northern Virginia Community College |
| Project Duration: | February 2014 – September 2017 |
| Description: | A Ray Marshall Center (RMC) research team, led by Dr. Christopher King and Dr. Kelly Mikelson, are conducting an evaluation of the TAACCCT (Trade Adjusmtent Assistance Community College and Career Training) grant to Austin Community College (ACC), a co-grantee with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. ACC developed the Health Professions Academy to deliver individualized, computer-based education to improve the prerequisite completion rate for students pursuing a healthcare career. In addition, about 30% of the ACC students are supported by CapitalIDEA which provides high-touch case management for eligible learners. The RMC evaluation will track the ACC students throught the Health Professions Academy and examine labor market outcomes for students using Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage data. The evaluation will run through September 2015. |
| Reports Available: |
Texas Middle and High School Counselor Demand/Supply
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, MPA |
| Sponsor: | Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium, Austin Community Foundation |
| Project Duration: | March 2014 – September 2014 |
| Description: | High school counselors have the potential to play a critical role in promoting students’ high school completion and college readiness. The Texas Legislature has frequently recognized the importance of counselors in delegating important responsibilities to them, most recently in the case of House Bill 5 in regards to counselors’ assisting students in understanding and choosing curricular pathways, graduation plans, and endorsements. However, the legislative cuts to educational appropriations in 2011 appear to have reduced the supply of counselors in the state, possibly preventing the new curricular mandates in HB5 from being fully implemented. Despite the importance of counselors, limited research exists on factors that affect the supply of counselors and the effects of this supply on student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to analyze trends in the supply of counselors and the demand for their services, understood as trends in the student population, and to estimate the effects of counselors on students’ likelihood of finishing high school and enrolling in college. The study will specifically investigate whether students attending schools and districts that eliminated counseling staff as a result of the 2011 budget cuts fared worse than their peers in contexts where the student-to-counselor ratio was relatively maintained. |
| Reports Available: | Texas School Counselor Study: Exploring the Supply, Demand, and Evolving Roles of School Counselors Authors: Greg Cumpton, Matt Giani Date: December 2014 Publication Type: Report. 48pp.Texas School Counselor Study Executive Summary Authors: Greg Cumpton, Matt Giani Date: December 2014 Publication Type: Executive Summary. 4pp. |
Evaluation of the TAACCCT Grant to Tulsa Community College’s Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace, and/or Transportation & Logistics Pathways Project
| Principal Investigator: | Christopher T. King, Ph.D. |
| Sponsors: | Corporation for a Skilled Workforce |
| Project Duration: | September 2013 to September 2016 |
| Description: | Ray Marshall Center researchers, led by Dr. Christopher King and Tara Smith, are conducting an evaluation of the TAACCCT (Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training) Advanced Manufacturing Grant to Tulsa Community College (TCC) funded by the U.S. Department of Labor in partnership with researchers at Ann Arbor-based Corporation for a Skilled Workforce. TCC is strategically aligning workforce, education, and training activities to develop sustainable career pathways in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and other industries with national and/or industry-recognized credentials, as well as offering an array of support services. The evaluation will run through September 2016. |
| Reports Available: |
Gulf Coast IT Pathways Consortium Evaluation
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsors: | The Aspen Institute, US Department of Labor |
| Project Duration: | May 2013 to September 2016 |
| Description: | The Aspen Institute in collaboration with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin is carrying out a high-quality, non-experimental (comparison cohort) impact analysis and implementation study to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the Gulf Coast IT Pathways Consortium with funding provided by the US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Program. The Consortium, which consists of nine community colleges in Mississippi and Louisiana, is tasked with addressing the challenges facing trade-impacted workers and meeting the high demand for IT workers in their regions. |
| Reports Available: | Retraining the Gulf Coast through Information Technology Pathways: Final Impact Evaluation Report Authors: Ashweeta Patnaik and Heath Prince Date: September 2016 Publication Type: Report, 68pp Retraining the Gulf Coast through Information Technology Pathways: Impact Evaluation Interim Report |
Institutes of Higher Education Capacity Survey
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD and Monica Faulkner, PhD, LMSW |
| Sponsor: | University of Texas Health Science Center and Texas Early Learning Council |
| Project Duration: | February 2013 – August 2013 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center in collaboration with the Child and Family Research Institute at the UT Social Work department are conducting The Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) Capacity Survey funded by the Texas Early Learning Council. The purpose of the survey is to assess the level of preparedness of new professionals in the early childhood care and education (ECCE) field. The project will survey providers of ECCE working in different settings as well as administrators of higher education programs offering certificates and degrees in the field of ECCE. The research team led by Dr. Heath Prince includes Drs. Monica Faulkner and Daniel Schroeder who have extensive experience in conducting research in the field of ECCE. |
| Reports Available: | Texas Early Childhood Care and Education: Professional Preparation – Survey Data Report Authors: Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources Date: June 2013 Publication Type: Report, 29pp. Texas Early Childhood Care and Education: Institutes of Higher Education – Survey Data Report Texas Early Childhood Care and Education: Institutes of Higher Education – Capacity Survey Final Report |
Training for Regional Energy in North Dakota (TREND)
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | United States Department of Labor and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce |
| Project Duration: | February 2013 – November 2016 |
| Description: | Training for Regional Energy in North Dakota (TREND) is a consortium of five community colleges that are collaborating to address labor shortages in the state’s energy sector. Leaders from these institutions are equipping workers with post-secondary certificates and credentials in order to meet employers’ needs for a skilled workforce, as well as to help ensure that workers can access and succeed in this rapidly expanding sector. To this end, TREND will pursue the following strategies:1. Develop new and enhanced curricula and credentials to help students find jobs in oil and gas, transportation and building and construction trades in North Dakota;2. Redesign the program development and delivery systems provided by the colleges to support more flexible and technology-enabled learning; and
3. Offer enhanced student support services and career navigation to increase retention and placement. The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) has joined with the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) as an external program evaluator for this project. In order to determine how TREND is implemented, as well as its outcomes, CSW and RMC have proposed an integrated evaluation approach that includes both an implementation and an impact evaluation. This grant is funded by the Department of Labor and will run through 2016. |
| Reports Available: |
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