On Oct. 13-14, the Ray Marshall Center will co-host the “Two-Generation Education” roundtable discussion in Washington D.C. with Ascend, the Aspen Institute’s Family Economic Security Program, and the Foundation for Child Development. The goal of the meeting is to explore the emerging research and implementation of two-generation strategies to help low-income families achieve economic security and educational success for their children. Invited roundtable participants include representatives from foundations, social policy research centers, policymakers, service providers and practitioners, and members of the academic community.  Roundtable participants will discuss the importance and relevance of two-generation strategies in relation to postsecondary education, skills training, and early childhood development. Based on joint work with Center colleagues Dr. Bob Glover and Tara Smith, Center director Dr. Chris King will give a presentation on dual-generation policies, including a conceptual framework, an analysis of the major opportunities and challenges for these strategies, and thoughts on next steps for moving forward with a dual-generation agenda. 

The Ray Marshall Center has been at the forefront of the design and implementation of two generation strategies. Center researchers have partnered with colleagues at Harvard, Northwestern, and Columbia Universities and the Community Action Program of Tulsa County to implement a sectoral workforce initiative providing education and training in the healthcare field to parents of children in Head Start and Early Head Start. This dual generation sectoral workforce development program, CareerAdvance, has received national acclaim. The Ray Marshall Center is working with its partners to expand the initiative to other states and areas.  In April 2011, the Foundation for Child Development provided a grant of $218,000 to the Ray Marshall Center in support of the new, multi-year “Dual-Generation Strategy Initiative” that will further the Center’s work in this emerging area.  This work will be enhanced by two additional awards from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families under its Health Professions Opportunities Grant program.

On Oct. 10, Dr. Chris King presented recent research findings from the Central Texas Student Futures Project at a meeting of Central Texas College Presidents, hosted by the Austin Area Research Organization. The presentation included background on the project, current college enrollment persistance data, as well as employment data for recent high school graduates. To view or download a copy of the presentation, click on this link.

The Austin Area Research Organization is (AARO) is a non-profit organization comprised of 90 business and community leaders from the Central Texas region of Caldwell, Bastrop, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. AARO works to facilitate the economic and social well-being of Central Texas by researching and addressing public policy issues in 8 priority areas:  Education, Energy, Health Care, Higher Education, Leadership, Social Equity, Transportation, and Water. Its mission is to engage regional leaders in data-driven, deliberative action to advance the long-term economic and social well-being of Central Texas.

Two new pilot programs represent efforts by the Texas Office of the Attorney General to extend and expand upon the original, highly successful Non-Custodial Parent Choices (NCP Choices) program. The two programs are the Non-Custodial Parent Choices Establishment Pilot (NCP Choices-EP) and the Non-Custodial Parent Choices PEER curriculum enhancement pilot (PEER). Center research scientist, Dr. Daniel G. Schroeder and other researchers from the Ray Marshall Center have published two reports that describe the impacts of each pilot program.

In the report titled “Non-Custodial Parent Choices Establishment Pilot: Impact Report“, Dr. Daniel Schroeder and Amna Khan review the Establishment Pilot, which extends the successful NCP Choices program to non-custodial parents earlier in their case histories, with the goal being to avoid the accumulation of child support debt. The pilot began in four offices in San Antonio in early 2010, and although there are differences in targeting and recruitment, NCPs who are enrolled receive the same workforce development services as those in the original NCP Choices program. Findings to date suggest that the Establishment Pilot has clearly led to increased child support collections, including increased frequency, amount, and consistency of payments made by NCPs. 

The second report, “Non-Custodial Parent Choices PEER Pilot: Impact Report” by Dr. Daniel Schroeder, Kimberly Walker and Amna Khan, focuses on the impacts of the PEER pilot, which began in late 2010 in Hidalgo County, El Paso, and Beaumont/Port Arthur. The PEER pilot tests whether the addition of a curriculum including parenting and relationship skills and financial literacy to the standard workforce development services in the original program can measurably enhance the program’s impacts on the ability of low-income non-custodial parents (NCPs) to support their children. Early findings suggest that PEER has been highly successful in engaging noncustodial parents; roughly three out of every four NCPs ordered into PEER either completed the curriculum or obtained full-time employment during the pilot period. Impact evaluation results indicate that the PEER pilot has clearly led to increased child support collections, including both increased frequency and consistency of payments made by NCPs.

For more information on the Ray Marshall Center’s work on the Non-Custodial Parents Choices project, please visit the project page at this link.

Earlier this year, Dr. Christopher King, director of the Ray Marshall Center and member of NTAR’s National Research Advisory Panel, published a NTAR issue brief entitled “Integrating Job Opportunities for People with Disabilities into State and Regional Economic and Workforce Development Strategies“. Dr. King later gave a podcast interview with NTAR’s Jeff Stolar discussing the brief. The interview can be downloaded for listening clicking on this link. A transcript of the podcast is also available at this link.

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a Washington D.C.-based organization working in the area of workforce development, has recently published two papers on workforce effectiveness that included research from the Ray Marshall Center.

The first paper titled “Research Show the Effectiveness of Workforce Programs” found that several studies and evaluations of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reported positive outcomes for participants. The paper cited a 2005 report for the U.S. Labor Department co-authored by Dr. Chris King, director of the Ray Marshall Center, Center research scientist Dr. Daniel Schroeder and Upjohn Institute colleagues titled “Net Impact Estimates for Services Provided through the Workforce Investment Act”.  The paper also cited the Ray Marshall Center’s recent research on Capital IDEA, a sector-based training program being piloted in Austin that is showing substantial impacts in employment, earnings, and Unemployment Insurance-related effects.  The data came from two 2011 publications: “Local Investments in Workforce Development: 2011 Evaluation Update” and an essay titled “The Promise of Sectoral Approaches to Workforce Development: Towards More Effective, Active Labor Market Policies in the United States” featured in the book Human Resources Economics: Essays in Honor of Vernon M. Biggs, Jr. published in 2010 by the W. E. Upjohn Institute.

CLASP published a second brief titled “National Leaders Recognize the Value of Workforce Development Programs” that drew from the research cited from the earlier paper mentioned above. This brief provides quotes from government officials, academics, and business leaders, including quotes from Dr. Ray Marshall, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Carter administration, and Dr. Christopher King, director of the Ray Marshall Center, arguing the effectiveness and advocating continuation of the nation’s workforce and training programs.

The Texas Office of the Attorney General has engaged the Ray Marshall Center to conduct a third-party evaluation of the Urban Fathers Asset Building (UFAB) project. The UFAB project works to educate and assist young fathers in building assets and financial literacy to become more economically self-sufficient  and financially stable, and help improve the well-being of their children for the long term. The project is supported by a grant from the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families and will be implemented through a join partnership between the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Child Support Division, Baylor College of Medicine, and Covenant Community Capital Corporation. Project partners will develop and test innovative practices to increase young fathers’ access to and use of asset-building programs.

The Ray Marshall Center’s evaluation work will include development of the evaluation protocol, survey instruments, collection and analysis of project data and production of interim and final evaluation reports. The objectives of the evaluation are to assess the effects of the program on participants and track the processes developed to reach young fathers. Dr. Daniel Schroeder, research scientist at the Ray Marshall Center, is the principal investigator for the evaluation.