On June 13, Greg Cumpton, researcher at the Ray Marshall Center, gave a presentation at the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP) Summer Workshop. The presentation is now available on the website and available for viewing or download at this link: Student Futures Overview and Impact

The Sunday edition of Austin American Statesman on June 17 featured two stories by Brenda Bell discussing efforts made in Texas to help low-income families achieve skills and economic security. Comments from Dr. Chris King, director of the Ray Marshall Center, were highlighted in both articles. 

The first story, appearing on the paper’s front page, “In Texas, working poor families struggle to get ahead,” discusses the difficult realities low income families face in Texas and the efforts made by the state and nonprofit sector to help these individuals. Bell notes, Texas ranks last in the U.S. with the percentage of adults 25 or older in a state with a high school degree. Moreover, the state ranks third in terms of share of its hourly workforce earning minimum wage or less. Federal, state and local government support to improve labor outcomes in Texas has declined, noting that the state legislature’s main job training program fell from $44 million to $1.2 million in just one year. Debates continue to exist in Texas between providing people with short-term training to gain employment versus longer-term training in higher skill jobs for greater economic potential and security. Bell highlights Capital IDEA’s program to help people gain certifications and employment in the healthcare sector. Capital IDEA is a nonprofit that provides remedial education, postsecondary education, skills certifications, and counseling support to help low income adults get ahead. To read the full story, click here. 

To view a video overview of Capital IDEA, click here.

Bell’s second piece profiles several participants of Capital IDEA’s program, mostly single women and single moms, the realities and challenges they face, and plans that they are working towards. In this piece, the Ray Marshall Center’s exploratory analysis of Capital IDEA’s return on investment was highlighted. To read the full story, click here.

The Student Futures Project’s annual survey of graduating Central Texas high school seniors closed as of June 12. Center researchers plan to share survey reponses and preliminary results with each participating high school later in the summer. 

Researchers will issue a series of reports over several weeks, with each report focusing on a specific topic of interest in the survey. The first report will address student responses towards planning and preparation for college. 

Feedback on these reports from participating partner schools are highly encouraged. Partner schools can provide feedback by visiting the Student Futures website, and clicking on the “Take the Student Futures Usage Survey” link located in the upper left area of the home page. For questions or additional information regarding the Student Futures Project, please contact Greg Cumpton, gcumpton@raymarshallcenter.org or Garry Davis, gdavis@raymarshallcenter.org.

On June 12, Mimi Corcoran, director of the special fund for poverty alleviation at Open Society Foundations, shared her impressions from a recent visit to Tulsa to learn about CareerAdvance, the two-generation program operated by Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAPTC) that works to help low-income parents achieve nursing and health information technology associate degrees.  To read the blog posting, click here.

On June 12, Center researcher Greg Cumpton gave a presentation at the Successful 21st Century High School Symposium addressing strategies for improving postsecondary enrollment in Central Texas. To view or download the presentation, click here.

On June 11, Greg Cumpton met with the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s College Readiness and Enrollment Team (CREST) to update members of the latest progress with the 2012 high school senior surveys, plans for using the data, recent and planned research publications and presentations for the project. The presentation is a available for viewing or download at this link.

The June 2012 e-newsletter for the Ray Marshall Center was released today. You can click on this link to view online or download the PDF version here. Newsletters are available every other month. If you would like to sign up to receive future newsletters via email, please enter your contact on this form: Newsletter Sign Up Page

Center researchers have released a new report for the Austin College Access Network project. The report Initial Evaluation Findings: Central Texas College Access and Persistence Programs by Tara Smith and Greg Cumpton provides a process summary of the literature reviewed and the results of the service and demographic mapping conducted for this project.  It draws on program documents and interviews with key leaders in ACAN member organizations to create profiles of three comprehensive college access and persistence programs in Central Texas, which are the focus of forthcoming outcome and impact analyses.  The report’s conclusion highlights schools and target populations that are not being well-served by current college access and persistence efforts in the region.  Recommendations for better targeting community resources and services at those identified gaps focus on best practices from the literature and lessons learned from ACAN member organizations.