The Ray Marshall Center, in collaboration with the Workers Defense Project, co-sponsored a press release of their report The Failed Promise of the Texas Miracle: Corporate Subsidies in the Lone Star State in February. RMC Research Associate Dan O’Shea and Director Dr. Heath Prince joined researchers at the Workers Defense Project in examining whether or not tax subsidies and other corporate incentives have improved or worsened economic- and education-related inequalities faced by working Texas families.

RMC Senior Research Scientist Dr. Christopher King presented The Promise of Two-Generation Anti-poverty Strategies to ChildCareGroup and other Dallas partners in January. Recent evidence suggests that Dallas may be well-suited to continue two-generation research.

RMC Director Dr. Heath Prince’s book review of The Political Economy of Development: The World Bank, Neoliberalism and Development Research was published by Sage Journal’s Review of Radical Political Economics in January. Dr. Prince’s review offers acclaim and criticism of the book considered by many to be essential reading for policymakers and scholars interested in The World Bank’s approach to policy and development research.

RMC Senior Research Scientist Dr. Christopher King presented Moving Sectoral and Career Pathway Strategies from Promise to Scale to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services in February. The presentation, based on a chapter co-authored by RMC Director Dr. Heath Prince, is part of a practice and policy lecture series sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Dr. King discussed recent successes and challenges from RMC career pathway program evaluations around the nation, as well as offered recommendations for scaling effectively.

Our Director, Dr. Heath Prince, just returned from a research project in the Middle East and Northern Africa for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Stay tuned for details!

RMC Social Science Research Associate Ashweeta Patnaik presented at the American Evaluation Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago in November. In a multi-paper panel, Ms.Patnaik shared an evaluator’s perspective on “Using Integrated Data Systems for Multi-Site Evaluations.” Ms. Patnaik shared the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned in utilizing such an integrated data system during the RMC’s mixed-method multi-site evaluation of Project GROW, an accelerated skills training program spanning the Texas-Mexico border, sponsored by the US Department of Labor’s Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF).

Ms. Patnaik’s Abstract

Dr. Heath Prince presented on lessons learned by the Ray Marshall Center’s evaluation of the Retraining the Gulf Coast Through IT Pathways Project for the 2015 NCWE Conference in Portland on October 15. In a panel discussion with the Aspen Institute, he presented on the challenges faced by evaluators in obtaining the administrative data and participant outcomes necessary to do rigorous impact evaluations for TAACCCT Grants, as well as offered recommendations for policymakers and evaluators for addressing these challenges.

Dr. Heath Prince attended a Rockefeller Foundation– hosted Tech Salon– occasional meetings of experts across many fields, brought together to accelerate innovative solutions that address the world’s most pressing and complex social problems. The topic of the Chicago Tech Salon was how, and to what extent, big data can be used to improve program evaluations. Heath joined other domestic and international development program evaluators, covering a wide range of questions: from the advantages and limitations of big data in program evaluations, to the utility of big data where there is no big data “footprint.” A summary of the discussion can be found here.

Dr. Heath Prince presented at the American Evaluation Association Annual Conference in Chicago on November 9-14. In a panel discussion with representatives from the Rockefeller Foundation, Nuru International and FHI 360, he presented his analysis of the drivers of multidimensional poverty in Latin America. The Ray Marshall Center is partnered with Nuru International, a US-based nonprofit social venture working in Kenya and Ethiopia, to assist in developing multidimensional poverty indices to measure the impacts of Nuru International’s programs. FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions.

Dr. Chris King presented with Carolyn Heinrich at APPAM Fall Research Conference in Miami on November 12-14. On Thursday, King and Heinrich presented Changes in the Administration of U.S. Workforce and Labor Regulation Programs as part of a global perspectives session on labor policy. On Friday, King chaired a session on education research, Supporting K-12 and College Students Academically and Financially. In a panel with the Aspen Institute’s Ascend on Saturday, King discussed RMC two-generation program research, especially its growing success and unique opportunities to address college student parents.