Publications – Page 3

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2021 Update

April 6, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2021 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, and Heath Prince
Date: February 2022
Publication Type: Report, 170pp.

This evaluation examines outcomes and impacts for participants exiting the Travis County-funded community-based workforce programs between FY 2016 and FY 2020. To understand the impact of these services, the county has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This evaluation report presents findings and analyses of programs funded during a five-year on-going evaluation (FY 2016–FY 2020).

RMC’s Dr. Heath Prince co-authors article on interventions to prevent occupational heat stress in laborers

April 6, 2022 Leave a Comment

RMC’s Director and Research Scientist Dr. Heath Prince co-authored an article outlining interventions to prevent occupational heat stress in laborers during physically demanding work in high environmental temperatures. The article titled “Workplace Intervention for Heat Stress: Essential Elements of Design, Implementation, and Assessment” was published on March 22, 2022, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJEPH) by MDPI Open Access Journals and can be found here.

Abstract:
Heat stress is associated with numerous health effects that potentially harm workers, especially in a warming world. This investigation occurred in a setting where laborers are confronted with occupational heat stress from physically demanding work in high environmental temperatures. Collaboration with a major Nicaraguan sugarcane producer offered the opportunity to study interventions to prevent occupational heat-stress-related kidney disease. Two aims for this study of a rest-shade-water intervention program were: (1) describe the evolving intervention, summarize findings that motivated proposed improvements, assess impact of those improvements, and identify challenges to successful implementation and (2) extract primary lessons learned about intervention research that have both general relevance to investigations of work-related disease prevention and specific relevance to this setting. The learning curve for the various stakeholders as well as the barriers to success demonstrate that effectiveness of an intervention cannot be adequately assessed without considerations of implementation. Designing, effectively implementing, and assessing both health impacts and implementation quality is a resource-intensive endeavor requiring a transdisciplinary approach. Both general and specific lessons learned are presented for decisions on study design and study elements, implementation assessment, and management engagement in understanding how productivity and health can be successfully balanced and for building effective communication between investigators and all levels of management.

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2017 Update

February 21, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2017 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, Heath Prince, and Greg Cumpton
Date: December 2017
Publication Type: Report, 72 pp.

This evaluation examines outcomes and impacts for participants in the Travis County-funded community-based workforce programs exiting services in FY 2016. To understand the impact of these services, the County has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC) at the University of Texas at Austin to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This Workforce Development (WFD) evaluation process will prepare the first year analysis of outcomes and estimated net impacts of these investments in the programs funded in FY 2016, the first of a five year on-going evaluation (FY 2016- FY 2020).

The first section presents an overview of the evaluation questions and research methods, followed by separate sections for each of the providers examined. Each provider section includes a brief profile of the provider and its workforce development program(s), and details outcomes and impacts for participants who exited the program during FY 2016. Findings examine UI wage data for the quarter the client exited services, four quarters prior to entering the program, and four quarters post exit. Findings examine results in the post-service period through June 30, 2017, the latest quarter for which UI wage data is available. Additionally, each section reports annual funding levels. The final section summarizes evaluation findings from FY 2016.

Evaluation of Austin Community College’s Strengthening Institutions Program Grant: Annual Outcomes and Impacts Report

January 26, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Austin Community College’s Strengthening Institutions Program Grant: Annual Outcomes and Impacts Report
Authors: Ashweeta Patnaik, Greg Cumpton, and Cynthia Juniper
Date: September 2021
Publication Type: Report, 35pp.

Austin Community College (ACC) received a $1.7 million Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) in 2015 to develop programs to help students understand smart money management and college financing. The grant, “Achieving Student Success through Financial Aid Education and Financial Literacy,” funded initiatives to teach students about money management and to help the ACC community understand the connection between students’ academic and financial goals. The target population for ACC’s initiatives for the SIP grant was all first-time in college (FTIC) credential-seeking students.

Through this grant, ACC established the Student Money Management Office (SMMO) whose mission is to support Austin Community College student success by providing accessible and relevant money management education, enabling students to make informed financial decisions. SMMO’s activities included text message alerts about financial aid requirements and deadlines, financial literacy workshops for students, professional development for faculty and staff, outreach and awareness campaigns for students, creation of an online presence using various social media platforms, and enhancements to the online Degree Map planning tool to provide personalized real-time financial aid information.

ACC hoped to demonstrate that the activities of SMMO were linked to improvements in measures of student success such as retention rates, credential attainment rates, and cohort loan default rates. ACC partnered with the Ray Marshall Center (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to perform an impact evaluation of the effectiveness of SMMO’s activities on the student outcome measures of interest, as well as an implementation evaluation.

This report examines the outcomes and impacts of grant-funded activities throughout the five-year grant period.

Evaluation of Austin Community College’s Strengthening Institutions Program Grant: Implementation Evaluation Report Through July 2021

January 26, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Austin Community College’s Strengthening Institutions Program Grant: Implementation Evaluation Report Through July 2021
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Greg Cumpton, and Ashweeta Patnaik
Date: September 2021
Publication Type: Report, 20pp.

ACC partnered with the Ray Marshall Center (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct an implementation evaluation and an outcome and impact analysis of the SMMO program.

The SMMO implementation study documents the evolution of the program from the initial development and implementation starting in July 2016, continuing throughout the duration of the program, examining program modifications to understand how and why changes were made. The implementation evaluation is an essential source of information for interpreting the outcomes and impacts of student participation in the grant supported programs. Furthermore, the documentation of the program’s evolution over time may help to inform the development of other community college student money management efforts.

This final report examines the implementation and evolution of the program throughout the grant period. This report provides a summary overview of program initiatives, describes data-driven project modifications, and project refinements in response to the needs of the participants being served and to improve program efficiency. This report presents findings related to each of the following research questions:

What progress has SMMO made in the implementation of the project stated objective?
How has SMMO changed over time and why?
What program and institutional factors contribute to or impede program goal implementation?

The implementation study drew on multiple sources of data to answer these questions: the ACC and SMMO websites, interviews with program leadership, staff, and Peer Money Mentor focus group responses, SMMO social media platforms, and various SMMO program reports and documents.

RMC’s Chris King co-authors chapter in book “The Governance of Labour Administration”

December 17, 2021 Leave a Comment

RMC’s Senior Research Scientist Dr. Chris King co-authored a chapter with Burt Barnow in a new book The Governance of Labour Administration: Reforms, Innovations and Challenges, edited by Jason Heyes and Ludek Rychly of the University of Sheffield Management School and available in print or open access through Edward Elgar Publishing. The book focuses on public administration activities in the field of national labour policy, providing detailed analyses of labour administration reforms, innovations, and challenges in different countries (case studies from Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United States are detailed). The chapter co-authored by King and Barnow describes developments in U.S. policies (see Chapter 11, “Recent developments in U.S. labor policies and programs”).

Research Study of Austin Community College’s Rainy Day Savings Program

September 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Research Study of Austin Community College’s Rainy Day Savings Program
Date: August 2021
Publication Type: Report, 28pp.

With funding support from Trellis Foundation, the Student Money Management Office (SMMO) at Austin Community College (ACC) is implementing the Rainy Day Savings Program, modeled after the success of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). In the Rainy Day Savings program, students earn up to $100 in cash incentives while working to amass at least $500 in savings. ACC has partnered with the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) at The University of Texas at Austin to study the effectiveness of the Rainy Day Savings program.

In this interim report, RMC researchers examined program participation patterns and early program outcomes. A comparison of pre- and post- financial well-being measures suggests that by helping build up participants’ savings and financial cushions, the program helped increase participants’ perceived financial well-being. The level of participation and the amount saved varied considerably among active program participants. Program participation (including incentive take-up) and outcomes were also disaggregated by participant characteristics to identify equity gaps. Results suggest that women, underrepresented minorities, and students with children likely need additional prompts and assistance to complete the tasks necessary to earn the incentives. In the next report, researchers will use administrative data from ACC to study the program’s impact on student success outcomes such as retention.

Nuru Nigeria: 2021 Midpoint Impact Report

September 8, 2021 Leave a Comment

Nuru Nigeria: 2021 Midpoint Impact Report
Authors: Ashweeta Patnaik, Heath Prince, and Thomas Boswell (Ray Marshall Center); Olayinka Orefunwa and Bless Jima (Nuru Nigeria); Dena Bunnel, Casey Harrison, and Matt Lineal (Nuru International)
Date: August 2021
Publication Type: Report, 58 pp.
This report is commissioned by Nuru International.

The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) at The University of Texas at Austin is conducting a four-year mixed-method impact evaluation of Nuru Nigeria’s interventions. The study design includes an intervention group and a non-intervention comparison group assigned through a clustered random control trial design. The mixed-method approach includes quantitative data collection using a household survey administered at baseline and midpoint, and qualitative data collection using focus groups and stakeholder interviews conducted at baseline and midpoint. RMC is using propensity score matching and difference-in-difference to study the impact of Nuru Nigeria’s interventions. This report sets out the midpoint status of these objectives.

The impact analysis found that, at the midpoint, Nuru interventions had no significant program impact on overall resilience, but did have impacts on adaptive resilience capacity and transformative resilience capacity. The impact analysis also found that Nuru had significant program impacts on several key resilience indicators, including access to cash savings, asset ownership, shock preparedness and mitigation, aspirations/confidence to adapt/locus of control, availability of financial resources, education/training, and availability of/access to formal safety nets. The impact analysis also found that Nuru had significant and often large program impacts on short-term outcomes like saving money, saving cash crops from loss, household dietary diversity, using zinc supplements to treat diarrhea, and soap use. Nuru’s M&E team also found that Nuru intervention households had a 65 percent increase in crop equivalent yield (CEY) from 2019 to 2020, exceeding the target of a 32 percent increase in CEY, as well as a 107 percent increase in agricultural income, exceeding the target of 30 percent. Overall, the midpoint findings suggest that Nuru Nigeria’s interventions are having positive impacts on both short-term outcomes and resilience indicators. The midpoint results can help inform Nuru Nigeria’s program implementation and be used to make decisions about where to focus program efforts.

Evaluation of the CCCCO Financial Literacy Pilot Final Report

July 19, 2021 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of the CCCCO Financial Literacy Pilot Final Report
Authors: Ashweeta Patnaik, Greg Cumpton, and Cynthia Juniper
Date: May 2021
Publication Type: Report, 67pp.

The California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) partnered with fifteen community colleges across California to pilot a unique financial literacy messaging intervention in fall 2019 and fall 2020. The goal of the pilot was to increase student retention and success by delivering useful financial literacy material, focusing on much‐needed information about budgeting and credit, and specifically targeting first‐year, first‐time students, via a texting/email platform.

The CCCCO partnered with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot. RMC’s evaluation included an outcome evaluation for each college and a rigorous impact evaluation for the pilot as a whole. Using a quasi‐experimental evaluation approach, RMC researchers found that overall, the financial literacy messaging campaign had small but positive impacts on academic outcomes in the semester that the pilot was implemented in, but no impacts on longer‐term academic outcomes, retention outcomes, and credential attainment outcomes. Sub‐group analyses found positive impacts on fall‐to‐spring retention for first‐time students, female students, and financial aid students. In this final report, researchers discuss the evaluation’s findings and offer recommendations. The results of this evaluation can serve as an impetus for colleges to scale up and expand their financial literacy messaging campaign while adopting evidence‐based best practices.