The September 2011 issue of the Ray Marshall Center e-newsletter is now available. To view the newsletter, please click on this link. Newsletters are sent semi-monthly. If you would like to receive a copy of our future e-newsletters, please sign up at this link.
9/14/2011- Garry Davis Selected As David Fellow and Joins Center as Graduate Research Assistant
Garry Davis, a graduate student at LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, has received the Bryna and Henry David Fellowship from the Ray Marshall Center and joins the Center as a graduate research assistant working on the Central Texas Student Futures Project. Davis is the fifth recipient of the fellowship.
The Ray Marshall Center selects the David Fellow every two to three years to work half-time on education and workforce related research. Funding for the fellowship is generously supported by the endowment of Bryna and Henry David. Henry David taught at the LBJ School in the 1970s; both he and his wife Bryna were nationally recognized researchers in career-related education.
Davis is in the Master of Public Affairs program with a focus on productivity improvement across social and economic policies and programs. He expects to complete his degree in May 2013.
Prior to coming to the LBJ School and the Ray Marshall Center, Davis was a Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools, a nonprofit focusing on education reform, working with students at Bedichek Middle School in Austin. In this role, Davis worked closely with students to help close the achievement gap by helping them maintain or improve their academic standing and provided them with college and career connections. The intersection of the two goals is Davis’ specialization. He was responsible for engaging the community and bringing the community into the classroom, in the form of a 10-week apprenticeship program taught by volunteer professionals. Davis oversaw the volunteer recruitment, training, and support for staff and volunteers throughout the apprenticeship process.
Davis’ other experience included serving as an Operations Associate for the United Way of the Capital Area and interning Capital Area Food Bank in the volunteer management department.Davis received his Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies and a Professional Business Foundations Certificate from the University of Texas at Austin.
9/13/2011 – Casey Foundation Convenes Dual Generation Meeting in Tulsa
On Sept. 8, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Family Economic Success convened a two-day meeting and program visit to the Community Action Project (CAP) of Tulsa County. Participants included the Ray Marshall Center, represented by Dr. Chris King, as well as foundation representatives, education and social services practitioners, and social policy researchers. CAP Tulsa is a non-profit agency that works to break the cycle of poverty by providing targeted programs and services for low-income Americans living in Tulsa County. To achieve this objective, the organization uses a strategy that integrates high quality early childhood education with innovative financial and workforce services for the family.
On the first day, meeting organizers provided an overview various CAP Tulsa programs, including CareerAdvance®, a workforce development program for the parents of children in CAP’s early education centers. CareerAdvance® started in 2008 and researchers from the Ray Marshall Center led the design of the program’s workforce training model. In contrast to other workforce development programs, CareerAdvance® combines sector-based skills training and adult education program, currently focusing on jobs in the health sector, with counseling and other supportive services to help parents achieve high career potential employment.
On the second day, meeting participants discussed current investments in and lessons learned from various dual generation programs. Other key topics discussed included how to scale up dual generation programs and how to improve efficiency and achieve long-term program sustainability. This meeting is part of the Casey Foundation’s ongoing efforts to explore strategies that advances the Foundation’s mission to create better futures for vulnerable children and families.
To further the discussion, the Ray Marshall Center, along with the Foundation for Child Development and the Aspen Institute’s Ascend Program, will host a dual generation policy forum in Washington D.C. in mid-October.
9/13/2011 – Chris King Co-authors "The Use of Market Mechanisms" Chapter in New Publication from Upjohn Institute
The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research has published a new publication entitled The Workforce Investment Act: Implementation Experiences and Evaluation Findings, co-edited by Douglas J. Besharov and Phoebe H. Cottingham. This book examines Workforce Investment Act (WIA) objectives and the evidence on program performance and impact. The book is divided into five general sections: 1) understanding WIA, 2) program implementation, 3) performance management, 4) impact evaluations, and 5) future evaluation choices.
The Ray Marshall Center’s Chris King, with Burt S. Barnow from George Washington University, co-authured “The Use of Market Mechanisms“, the first chapter in the program implementation section. King and Barnow present key results concerning market and market-like mechanisms in the delivery of workforce services in the US. These mechanisms include labor market information (LMI), provider certification, individual training accounts (ITAs), and performance standards and incentives. The findings are based on WIA study conducted 2003-2005 that examined the experiences of eight states. The authors also provide a series of conclusions relevant to the use of market mechanisms, as well as recommendations for both the WIA reauthorization process and the European Social Fund.
The publication is available for purchase from the Upjohn Institute’s website.
9/10/2011 – David Fellowship Application Closed
9/12/2011 – Center Shares Lessons from Dual Generation Projects
Dr. Chris King, director of the Ray Marshall Center, and Northwestern University’s Lindsay Chase-Lansdale made a presentation of the lessons learned from the CareerAdvance® project to a dual generation policy conference convened by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore on June 29. The Ray Marshall Center, in collaboration with Community Action Program of Tulsa County and a multidisciplinary team of partners, launched CareerAdvance® in July 2008 to help low-skilled low-income parents of children served by Head Start and Early Head Start achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency by providing workforce training and skills certification in industries with career earnings potential.
Building on this work, the Ray Marshall Center recently launched the multi-phase Dual Generation Strategy Initiative in April 2011 with the first two phases supported by the Foundation for Child Development. Phase one of the project is currently underway. Center researchers are gathering information, meeting with stakeholders, identifying participants and developing the project’s framework. The second phase includes the implementation planning and is expected to begin in fall 2011. The pilot implementation, the third phase, is scheduled to begin in early summer 2012, subject to garnering additional partnerships and funding. The fourth phase occurs concurrently with the other three phases and includes development of the research agenda and evaluation design for the pilot.
9/9/2011 – Dr. Robert Glover Becomes Interim Associate Director
Dr. Robert W. Glover, prominent research scientist at the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, has assumed the role of interim associate director, filling the position previously held by Deanna Schexnayder. Schexnayder, who still holds her senior research scientist title with the Center, is now serving as assistant dean for finance for the LBJ School of Public Affairs starting earlier in June 2011.
Glover has been a key figure at the Center since its founding in 1970 by Dr. Ray Marshall, who later went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor under the Carter Administration. This new appointment is nothing new to Glover, having served as director of the Center in its earlier days. Balancing his new role with his current role as research scientist, Glover will continue to work on major workforce development projects, as well as oversee administrative matters and assist with the Student Futures Project, an ongoing regional initiative started in 2004 that studies education and labor force outcomes for high school graduates in eleven Central Texas school districts.
Glover received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, with a specialization in labor economics and human resource development. He has been at the forefront of labor market and education research, authoring or co-authoring several dozen published articles, reports, and books. The latest of which is a report co-authored with Tara C. Smith, Christopher King, and Rheagan Coffey on CareerAdvance®, a path-breaking pilot project implemented in partnership with the Community Action Project of Tulsa County that seeks to end the cycle of poverty by implementing a dual-generation strategy that bolster investments in early childhood education by providing parents with education, workforce training, and skills certification to help them succeed in labor market.
With Glover’s skills and experience, the Ray Marshall Center is in good hands while it continues its search for a permanent associate director, noted Chris King, director of the Center. The associate director search is underway and qualified applicants are encouraged to apply. Candidates should have should have a doctoral degree in economics or a related social science area and at least ten years experience. Interested individuals should apply to University of Texas’ Human Resources website at this link.
9/7/2011 – Alanna Burney Joins Center’s Administrative Team
The Ray Marshall Center welcomes Alanna Burney as its new administrative associate. She will be the third member of Center’s small but effective three-person administrative team, and provide support to assistant director Susie Riley and senior administrative associate Karen White.
Burney, a native of Houston, has had a long career at the University of Texas in Austin. In 2000, she served as the accounts payable supervisor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Business Office, where she also received the Staff Appreciation Award in 2002-03. The following year, she moved on to serve on University of Texas’ Staff Council. Burney later worked at the College of Communications where she handled the College’s grants and contracts, both pre- and post-award.
Outside of work, Burney is a food aficionado, active gardener, and travel enthusiast. She previously lived in Central America where she owned and operated a deli and sandwich shop. She plans to open a restaurant in Austin in the future. The Ray Marshall Center is excited to have Burney on the team.
9/2/2011 – Associate Director Search Underway for Ray Marshall Center
The search for a new Associate Director of the Ray Marshall Center is underway and qualified applicants are encouraged to apply. Candidates should have a doctoral degree in economics or a related social science area and ten years experience. The position is 20% administration and 80% research on education and workforce development projects that rely on linked longitudinal administrative records. The position will start immediately since, in addition to having administrative duties as Associate Director, the person filling this position will play a role in several ongoing research projects involving confidential education, workforce and related data.
Interested individuals should apply to University of Texas’ Human Resources website at this link.
Interested individuals should apply to University of Texas’ Human Resources website at this link.
9/2/2011 – Center Welcomes Benjamin E. Moulton to Research Staff
In August, the Ray Marshall Center welcomed new research associate Benjamin E. Moulton. Moulton is primarily working on the Texas Child Care Market Rate Survey project but will also contribute to other quantitative analyses for other projects. The Center has been conducting statewide child care market rate surveys since 2003. Results of the annual surveys are provided to Local Workforce Development Boards who manage the federal child care program in Texas so that they have reliable, up-to-date data to help them determine maximum reimbursement rates.
Prior to joining the Ray Marshall Center, Moulton worked as the director of information systems for a contract policy research company in northern Virginia, where he performed quantitative analytical and database construction work for the company. He has also served as a statistics lecturer in the sociology department at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a contract SAS programmer. Moulton holds a BA and MA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a Ph.D. in sociology with a concentration in mortality from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a certified SAS programmer.
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