On June 20, 2013, Ray Marshall Center Associate Director Dr. Heath Prince and Research Associate Greg Cumpton presented key findings and lessons from the Student Futures Project at the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) in Washington, DC. Afterwards, Austin Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Drew Scheberle moderated a panel discussion and an audience Q&A session. To see Greg Cumpton’s presentation, click here.

RMC researchers Daniel Schroeder and Dan O’Shea have been monitoring random assignment of child support cases in El Paso County as part of their evaluation of the Integrated Child Support System (ICSS), also known as ‘Local Rule.’  Those with new child support orders are randomly assigned to either participate in the ICSS system or to be a part of the control group.  Random assignment started in April, 2013, and will continue until there are 400 cases in each group.  It was expected that this would take a year, but at the current pace, it will likely be completed sooner.  This ‘true experiment’ at the El Paso site is the centerpiece of a larger impact evaluation, the results of which are eagerly awaited by officials from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) and the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG).

On Tuesday, May, 21^st Chris King traveled to San Antonio to participate in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 2013 conference titled Family Engagement: A Shared Responsibility Among Families, Schools and Communities. In the afternoon, King co-hosted an “open space” panel on Two-Generation strategies with Nisha Patel of The Aspen Institute. The following day, he served as a panelist on “Re-imagining Family Engagement,” with Jesus Gerena of the Family Independence Initiative, Carolyn Jolivette of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson, and Kanoe Naone of INPEACE.

The summer following high school graduation can be a trying time for many high school graduates. Financial deadlines and other responsibilities can be overwhelming; many students who originally intend to enroll never arrive at their college campus. This drop in the share of students who intend to go to college in the spring of their senior year, but do not enroll that fall, is referred to as ‘summer melt.’ Recent studies indicate that additional support in the form of counselor meetings and/or communication to high school seniors during the summer after graduation should increase the share of students enrolling in college in the fall. A KUT News radio segment that aired on June, 13th, said the program “will provide answers and insight where parents may not be able to.” Furthermore, the segment concludes that improving college enrollment will ultimately “boost the local economy.”

Using a random assignment research design, researchers at the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) will investigate the efficacy of an innovative text messaging campaign designed to alleviate barriers associated with summer melt in four Central Texas school districts.  This project will utilize a text messaging platform to increase students’ college and financial literacy and to facilitate communication between high school seniors and school counselors the summer after graduating from high school. Text messaging is a particularly promising approach both to inform students and their parents of college tasks and to connect them to professional staff, such as high school counselors and college admissions counselors, when they need help.

An article published in the Austin-American Statesman on June, 3rd spoke to the program’s merits. “A few hours of encouragement and support over the summer can make the difference between a high school graduate going to college or not. Counselors will reach out to low-income, first-generation students and their families and will help them navigate financial aid, housing, and other daunting college enrollment forms. And they will try to ease students’ anxiety about the new experience college brings.” RMC researchers will monitor the results this coming fall, observing whether there is a regional reduction in summer melt compared to previous years. In future years, researchers will also be able to measure whether the college graduation rate improves as a result of the program.

The Ray Marshall Center, in collaboration with the Child and Family Research Institute at the UT Social Work department, has completed analysis of 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 surveyed 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 Heath Prince includes Monica Faulkner and Daniel Schroeder who have extensive experience in conducting research in the field of ECCE.

A total of 304 newly degreed and certified professionals working in the ECCE field responded to the first survey.   The survey captured information on respondent demographics, opinions on how well the respondents feel their education program prepared them, challenges experienced in pursuing their education, and available continuing education opportunities.

The second survey collected data from 63 programs that offer certificates and degrees in the area of ECCE.  Survey items include faculty characteristics such as numbers of faculty (full- and part-time), degrees held by faculty members, numbers of faculty members with early child education or child development degrees, and faculty members who have direct experience working with children.  Items regarding program characteristics include child age ranges covered by program content, courses in specialized content areas, student enrollment, number of graduates per year, and estimates of student work outcomes.  These responses, combined with the results of the ECCE professional survey, will serve to contribute to our understanding of the capacity of Texas to effectively prepare early childhood professionals.

Project reports will be posted on the RMC website upon approval by the Texas Early Learning Council.

This week’s Employment and Training Reporter highlights evaluation strategies undertaken by university partners to measure the results of career pathways programs across the country.  The Health Professions Opportunity Grant program (HPOG) that originates from the Affordable Care Act has provided grantees with $67 million of funds to develop their career pathways programs, opening the door for researchers to evaluate the outcomes of training and education programs in selected healthcare fields. The Ray Marshall Center is working with colleagues at Northwestern University and other universities to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of training programs provided by the Tulsa Community Action Program, an HPOG grantee that provides two-generation education and has a strong nursing and health information technology career pathways program known as CareerAdvance©.  CAP is the only HPOG grantee that is operating an explicit 2-generation strategy.

Read the article on page 471.

In May, researchers Tara Smith and Kristin Christensen conducted focus groups with participants in the Tulsa CAP CareerAdvance® program. CareerAdvance® is a sectoral job development program designed for low-skilled, low-income parents of children served by early childhood programs in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It equips parents with workforce training and gainful employment opportunities in the healthcare field, such as medical coding, health information technology, patient care, and nursing. Ms. Smith and Ms. Christensen met with 21 individuals in five focus groups to learn about students’ experiences in the courses, their thoughts about the program, and how participation has affected their financial state and personal lives. Participants emphasized that they were appreciative of the opportunities the program gave them and liked that the CareerAdvance® Career Coaches helped keep them motivated as they worked through their coursework. Lessons learned and suggestions for improvement were shared with CareerAdvance® staff.

The CareerAdvance® program was highlighted on the front page of Inquiry Magazine, a publication produced by the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Read the article here.

CBS Sunday Evening news ran a piece about the Tulsa Community Action Program (CAP) on May, 5^th. In the interview, George Kaiser, Tulsa oilman billionaire and philanthropist, states that evidence shows that “it works, it pays, and it’s the right thing to do.” The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) has played a key role in the evaluation of CAP and specifically the CareerAdvance project, which helps parents of pre-k kids receive education and accreditation that lead to higher paying jobs. This two-generation approach is highlighted in a second segment to the CBS piece.

The CareerAdvance project has now been expanded to 2015 with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. RMC and partners at Northwestern and Columbia University have been engaged to provide ongoing data collection, implementation and outcomes analysis of project participants.

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.