CEO Library

In 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to manage an impact evaluation and complementary analysis of Youth CareerConnect and to develop a participant tracking system for the program. These evaluation activities were carried out by contractors Mathematica, and Social Policy Research Associates. The final impact report follows implementation study reports published in 2017 and 2019.

In 2021, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and commissioned contractor Summit Consulting, LLC (Summit) to explore issues related to future research on application or user fees in programs administered by ETA based on a review of regulations, guidance, and selected research concerning such fees under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

The technical appendix to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Implementation Study that focused on the core workforce programs authorized under WIOA Title I (Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth Services) and Title III (Employment Services) and examined integration with programs under Titles II (Adult Education and Family Literacy) and IV (Vocational Rehabilitation), and other partners.

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $107 million in four-year grants to 24 applicants for the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) program. At its core, the YCC program was designed to strengthen America’s talent pipeline by putting high school students on a pathway to complete postsecondary education, obtain industry-recognized credentials, and secure a job in middle- to high-skilled fields that often rely on foreign workers.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of WIOA’s changes to various aspects of the WIOA Title I Youth program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The report covers changes regarding funding, service delivery approaches, performance accountability, and program elements.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of key changes to the Title I Adult and Dislocated Worker programs under WIOA. Discussed are the successes and challenges, promising practices, and possible areas for further technical assistance related to WIOA for these two programs.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report focuses on implementation of WIOA’s changes to various aspects of performance accountability and in other data-driven areas under the law, as related to the “core” workforce programs for Titles I and III.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 included multiple provisions to strengthen service quality, access, accountability, and coordination across many programs. The report describes early WIOA implementation efforts, based on data collected during pilot site visits to four states and eight local areas in fall 2017. The purpose of the site visits was to help inform the design of the WIOA implementation study and to identify key stakeholders’ initial perspectives on WIOA requirements across five domains.

The report provides the findings from the impact study of Youth CareerConnect (YCC). The YCC impact study assessed short-term student outcomes with two rigorous components—a quasi-experimental design (QED) study in 16 school districts and a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in four school districts that were also in the QED.

The report provides details on the data, samples, methods, and analyses for the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) impact study. Rigorously evaluating the effects of the YCC program on student outcomes required that multiple technical pieces be put in place, from selecting districts to participate in the evaluation to collecting and processing high-quality data and measuring impacts to conducting rigorous analysis to estimate impacts. This report provides details of these processes.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to fund contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Stay at Work/Return to Work (SAW/RTW) Models and Strategy Study. The study aims to document and expand the knowledge base of SAW/RTW strategies and identify promising models and best practices. The final study also includes evaluation design options, which could be implemented to build on and add to the evidence produced.

In 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to fund contractor Westat to conduct an evaluation of the Pathways to Careers project.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation, describes early outcomes of Round 4 TAACCCT colleges, describes education, earnings, and self-sufficiency outcomes of participants about 15 months after entry into 34 programs at nine selected Round 4 grantees. It also describes the implementation of those grantees’ programs.

Appendices to the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study Final Report that include Baseline Data, Follow-up Survey Data, Unemployment Insurance Wage Data, Service Impacts, Methodology for Estimating Outcomes by Program, Implementation Data Collection, and Expanded Results.

Profiles of nine Round 4 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant grantees—four single-institution and five consortia—whose grant-supported programs were included in the outcomes Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study. The profiles use data collected during site visits conducted in April and May 2017.

The report of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) national evaluation synthesizes findings implementation and impact findings from 71 Round 4 third-party evaluations. It summarizes what has been learned from the fourth and final round of the grant program to support a growing body of evidence on strategies that encourage accelerated learning, college persistence and completion, and connections to employment. The synthesis provides implications for future community college and workforce development initiatives and how to evaluate them.

The brief provides findings from an implementation study of the Evaluation of Community College Interventions for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). In 2014, DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) awarded two community colleges with 5-year Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) grants to increase their capacity to provide inclusive integrated education and career development and training services to young adults with disabilities.

The report presents findings of the Pathways to Careers: Community Colleges for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities (Pathways) evaluation consisting of an implementation study and a descriptive outcomes study. The evaluation is descriptive only, given the small numbers of participants included in the Pathways project and lack of a comparison group to measure impacts. The evaluation incorporates an overall design based on mixed data collection methods to support two interrelated and interwoven studies focused on implementation processes and programmatic outputs and outcomes.

More than 70 million Americans have some form of criminal record, which can limit their access to employment opportunities, eligibility for occupational licensure, and public benefits. The use of criminal background checks in the hiring process has also dramatically increased over the past decade, and there is reason to think that many criminal records are inaccurate. Prior research has not determined the extent of errors on criminal records.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report describes programs that were operating in the U.S. in 2018.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report includes a review of evidence published between 2008 and 2018 on the effects of SAW/RTW or related programs on employment and the receipt of federal disability benefits.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report analyzes public data to estimate the characteristics of the SAW/RTW target population and examine pathways from illness/injury to federal disability benefits as a way to identify opportunities for intervention.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report presents five options for new research to build evidence about the target populations for SAW/RTW and to test the effects of interventions on employment outcomes.

The brief provides a summary of information about the Stay at Work/Return to Work (SAW/RTW) Models and Strategy Study, the process, and findings from each study report.

The literature review updates and expands the findings of the Career Pathways Design Study that included the Career Pathways Research and Evaluation Synthesis, an analysis of career pathways research as of February 2017, that found a substantial amount of research and evaluation studies would be published in the near future. The findings from the updated scan will inform the project’s planned meta-analysis, which will examine the extent to which different career pathways program components drive impacts found in this body of evidence.