The February issue of the Ray Marshall Center newsletter has been released. A copy of the newsletter can be viewed by clicking here.

The Ray Marshall Center has begun working with the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO) on the Workforce Potential Project, which is aimed at increasing the share of Central Texas adult residents who have a postsecondary degree or professional certifications so that they may go on to earn fair sustainable wages to support their families.

This Workforce Potential Project started in 2011 in response to the U.S. Census statistic that showed 56% of area residents lack a post-high school degree. Another report from 2010 by the Center for Public Policy Priorities showed that continued business as usual will lead to a shortfall of 54,000 people with bachelor and associate degrees by 2015. Without an accreditation or postsecondary degree, individuals tend to have reduced access to higher wage employment and fewer career advancement opportunities.

As part of this project, the Center is conducting labor market research to identify promising industry sectors and associated educational and career training programs for improving employment and earnings outcomes for those without postsecondary credentials.  Presentation of research findings and recommendations for next steps are planned for late spring/summer 2012. Drs. Chris King and Bob Glover will serve as co-principal investigators on the project.

AARO is a community non-profit organization comprised of business and community leaders in Central Texas. Their mission seeks to advance the economic and social-well being of Central Texas by researching addressing policy issues in 6 priority areas of education, energy & water, health care, higher education, social equity, and transportation.

In the opinion section of the Jan. 26 Christian Science Monitor, author Courtney E. Martin highlighted dual generation programs that have shown early success at helping families break out of the cycle of poverty. Dual generation programs work to increase the skills and educational attainment of parents as well as provide quality education for their children, simultaneously. Martin’s piece listed several successful programs, among them CareerAdvance, a dual generation program that had been designed by the Ray Marshall Center and currently implemented in Tulsa, OK by the Community Action Project of Tulsa County. To read the full article, click here.

Mathematica Policy Research released a new report, “Employment Research in Brief: An Annotated Bibliography of ETA-Sponsored Studies”, summarizing research publications since 1995 that had been sponsored the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Several studies by Ray Marshall Center researchers are listed, these include:

• Net Impact Estimates for Services Provided through the Workforce Investment Act (1995) by Kevin Hollenbeck, Daniel Schroeder, Christopher T. King and Wei-Jang Huang
  
• The Workforce Investment Act in Eight States (1995) by Burt S. Barnow and Christopher T. King,  and
  
• “Michigan Case Study” in The Workforce Investment Act in Eight States: State Case Studies from a Field Network Evaluation – Volume 1 by Dan O’Shea and Christopher T. King
  
• “Texas Case Study” in The Workforce Investment Act in Eight States: State Case Studies from a Field Network Evaluation – Volume 2 by Dan O’Shea and Christopher T. King

A copy of the full report is available on the Mathematica website.

Lake Travis Independent School District (ISD) has joined the Central Texas Student Futures Project, a multi-year research partnership between the Ray Marshall Center, area school districts, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and others aimed at understanding the factors that influence how students transition from high school to postsecondary education and the workforce. The purpose of the project is two-fold: 1) To provide educators and employers with comprehensive, longitudinal research on what high school students are doing after graduation, why they are making these decisions, and how a variety of educational, personal and financial factors are related to their success in higher education and the workforce; 2) To provide real-time data and capacity building to Central Texas ISDs in preparing students for the demands of adulthood and for success in the workplace. 

The Student Futures Project arose from a need to address changing state demographics and projected shortage of college-educated young people in the workforce. The research utilizes a wide-ranging list of data sources – student demographic records and academic history, student surveys taken in spring before their high school graduation, and postsecondary education and employment records up to four years after graduation – to develop a comprehensive picture of where students are coming from and what they have done, what they are planning after high school, and where they actually go.  The number of participating school districts has grown since the project’s launch as a pilot in 2005. With Lake Travis ISD, the project is now expanded to 12 Central Texas independent school districts with well over 10,000 high schools students participating annually.

The Ray Marshall Center has recently published the following reports evaluating workforce development services in Travis County, Texas:

Local Investments in Workforce Development: 2012 Evaluation Update
Authors: Tara C. Smith, Christopher T. King, Daniel G. Schroeder
Date: January 2012
Publication Type: Report. 32pp.

This report is the fifth in a series from an evaluation of seven workforce development programs funded by Travis County, TX.  This report examines participants’ labor market outcomes and impacts of program participation for each service provider.  The report summarizes the findings to date, beginning with the 2007 participants, and outlines the next steps for research.

 

Evaluation of Local Workforce Demonstration Projects – Travis County’s REM and GEM Projects
Authors: Tara C. Smith, Christopher T. King, Daniel G. Schroeder
Date: January 2012
Publication Type: Report. 14pp.

This report presents finding from two workforce demonstration projects: the Rapid Employment Model, or REM, project and the Gainful Employment Model, or GEM, project.  This report builds on four prior evaluations for the REM project (2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011) and also introduces the GEM project and provides outcomes for 2009-2010 GEM participants.

More information about the Ray Marshall Center’s work in local workforce development projects as well as copies of past reports are available here.

Dr. Chris King gave a presentation at the Principal, College and Industry Forum on College and Career Readiness held on 12 January. The presentation included an overview of the Central Texas Student Futures Project as well as recent education and labor market outcomes for students from 11 Central Texas school districts.

To view or download the presentation, click here.

The Jan. 11 of edition of Tulsa World, the local newspaper forTulsa, OK featured an article about CareerAdvance, the two-generation workforce development program implemented by Community Action Project of Tulsa County. Researchers at the Ray Marshall Center had developed the program design in 2008. The path-breaking program strengthens investments in early childhood education by providing education and job skills training to parents of children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start. Program participants receive skills training and certifications in fields with high earnings potential sectors such as healthcare and health information technology, post-secondary education, as well as peer support and career counseling to help support their completion in the program. To read to full article, click here.