The October 2013 Newsletter for the Ray Marshall Center was released today. Click on this link to view the newsletter online or download the PDF version here. Newsletters are available approximately every other month.To receive future newsletters via email, please click on the newsletter sign-up page.

The Aspen Institute has a policy program for two-generation efforts called Ascend. In October, 2012, The Aspen Institute gathered its Ascend fellows, including RMC’s Dr. Chris King, as well as other influential thinkers to come together and use their experience and imagination to develop ideas that will benefit a “legacy of economic security and educational success” for generations to come.

The report, Making Economic Security a Family Tradition; Two-Generation Solutions from the Aspen THiNKXCHANGE, describes the purpose of the event; “The Aspen ThinkXChange gathered 150 dynamic leaders from across sectors — from cutting-edge community-based programs, policy, academia, philanthropy, business, and media — to discuss and debate opportunities and solutions for moving children and their parents toward economic mobility and opportunity.”

This publication offers insight into how two-generation solutions can be integrated into government programs on the local, state, and federal levels. Two-generation solutions focus on extracting whole families from the cycle of poverty by providing education and support services to children and their parents. In Section 2 of the report, adapted remarks from Chris King and his fellow panelists can be found.

A recent article in Education Week cites the Texas Early Childhood Workforce Compensation Study to highlight the fact that early-childhood educators and caretakers in Texas receive lower pay than their peers in other states.  This study was commissioned by the Texas Early Learning Council, and the report discussing the results of surveys of child care workers across the state of Texas was released in July. Data collection and analysis for the study were conducted by Cynthia Juniper, Anjali Gupta, and Daniel Schroeder at the Ray Marshall Center in collaboration with the School of Social Work’s Child and Family Research Institute (CFRI) at the University of Texas at Austin.  Surveys captured information on child care professional demographic characteristics, work history, compensation, benefits, and retention‐related factors.

The Ray Marshall Center is now accepting applications from incoming Masters students at LBJ for the Bryna and Henry David Fellow.

About the Bryna and Henry David Fellow
Every 2 to 3 years, the Ray Marshall Center hires an incoming masters student from the LBJ School of Public Affairs to work half-time on education and workforce-related research projects. The position is funded by an endowment created by the estate of Bryna and Henry David.  Henry David taught at the LBJ School in the 1970s, both he and his wife Bryna were nationally recognized researchers in career-related education. To date, four David Fellows have worked at the Ray Marshall Center, in recent years primarily contributing to the ongoing work of the Central Texas Student Futures Project.  David Fellows are paid a stipend, plus in-state tuition, and also receive funds to support attendance at a national policy research conference each year.

How to Apply
Interested students are invited to send their resumes and letters of interest to Susie Riley at susieriley@raymarshallcenter.org.

RMC researcher Tara Smith was one of the contributing authors for this report, intended to provide useful information about the nature of the workforce development and UI (Unemployment Insurance) policy decisions made nationwide in response to the recession, state and local administrators’ perspectives on the policy developments and economic challenges, and implementation of key Recovery Act provisions. The majority of the report’s chapters focus on workforce development initiatives in the Recovery Act, and Chapter 8 focuses on the Recovery Act’s UI provisions. The see the report, click here.

On Wednesday, RMC Research Associate Tara Smith traveled to Washington to testify before the Subcommittee on Human Resources for the Committee of Ways and Means, in the US House of Representatives. To read about Tara’s testimony, click here.

Dr. Anjali Gupta will be leaving the Ray Marshall Center to take on a new adventure in India. She will be working for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia Research Center.  J-PAL’s mission is to ensure that policy is based on scientific evidence and research is translated into action via a threefold mandate of evaluation, capacity building, and policy outreach. Anjali will be working on two J-PAL projects pertaining to education. Her primary project is the “Math Games” project conducted in collaboration with Pratham Educational Foundation in India. The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a game-based “school readiness” curriculum which will prepare children in pre-schools to learn more effectively when they enroll in schools.

Her secondary project is the Haryana Education Project, conducted in collaboration with the Government of Haryana. This project involves the evaluation of two state-run educational programs – Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation and Learning Enhancement Program.

We wish Anjali the best of luck in her new endeavors and look forward to hearing about her progress abroad.

The ‘Summer Melt’ program, a program which aims to bridge the gap between high school graduation and the first semester of college, was the topic of discussion for an NPR news piece. Listen to the segment here. RMC is working with Central Texas ISDs to implement the ‘Summer Melt’ program. This summer is the first year students in Central Texas will participate.

On Wednesday, July 17th, Tara Smith will testify before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee of Ways and Means in the House of Representatives in the nation’s capital.  To see Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert’s (R-WA) announcement for the hearing, please click here.

The May 2013 Newsletter for the Ray Marshall Center was released today. Click on this link to view the newsletter online or download the PDF version here. Newsletters are available approximately every other month.To receive future newsletters via email, please click on the newsletter sign-up page.