CEO Library

This report describes findings from an implementation study of 2022 FARE grants administered in California, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, and Oregon.

Registered apprenticeship provides an opportunity to help strengthen rural workforce development and labor markets by training the rural workforce for local industry needs. This brief describes approaches to promoting rural apprenticeship expansion based on discussion with state apprenticeship administrators, local apprenticeship partners, and employers in seven states.

Employers are an indispensable part of registered apprenticeship (RA) programs. Because they hire and train apprentices on the job and sponsor apprenticeship programs, state efforts to expand apprenticeship depend on outreach to and recruitment of employers. This brief describes seven states’ efforts to expand the number of employers engaging in apprenticeship programs.

Registered apprenticeships are increasingly a focus for state systems that support workforce development and can provide an opportunity to enhance diversity. The brief highlights challenges and promising strategies that state and local partners have used to support the recruitment, placement, and retention of underrepresented populations into registered apprenticeship programs. Strategies for recruitment included tailoring outreach to support diversity, addressing misconceptions about apprenticeships, and developing strong partnerships that help recruit and support apprentices.

Registered apprenticeship (RA) data and statistics, such as data on apprentice retention, demographics, wages, and credential attainment, can be used for reporting purposes, ongoing program monitoring and improvement efforts, and assessing apprenticeship expansion strategies. The purpose of this brief is to describe the current state approaches to apprenticeship data collection, identify promising practices and opportunity areas to improve data systems, and share ideas to support apprenticeship expansion.

This report describes findings from a formative study of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Navigators to better understand the implementation of Navigator positions across states. The study team collected data from TAA programs between November 2022 and October 2023 via three primary data collection activities: phone interviews with nine states; a web survey of TAA Coordinators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; and site visits with six states (three in-person and three virtual).

In 2024, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration to fund Mathematica and its partners, American Institutes for Research and MEF Associates, to conduct the Evaluation of Wagner Peyser Act Employment Service Operations. The impact and implementation studies of the evaluation aim to provide critical information to DOL, state workforce agencies, and other stakeholders about how the Employment Service is implemented across the nation and the effectiveness of the state merit staffing model and alternate staffing arrangements.

This spotlight brief describes technology barriers to accessing the unemployment insurance (UI) program that Navigator staff in New Mexico and Pennsylvania reported some claimants and potential claimants face, especially those who were older (ages 55+), had low incomes, or lived in a rural area. The brief then describes how UI Navigators in both states helped to remove those barriers by providing in-person assistance, technology equipment, and internet access so individuals with technology barriers can access the UI program. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S.

This spotlight brief highlights approaches used by three of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator grantees, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, to fill gaps in face-to-face UI services for historically underserved populations, including older adults, rural residents, and potential claimants from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S.

This spotlight brief describes outreach and engagement strategies that UI Navigators reported using in Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to share information about the UI program and UI Navigation services with underrepresented groups and to address several barriers to UI program access. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office, that explores the implementation of Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator Grants, which seven states received in 2022.

The brief documents the federal context—in particular within the U.S. Department of Labor—in which evidence-building activities for the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program were developed. It also describes the evaluation technical assistance (EvalTA) provided to states from 2018 to 2023 that supported states in planning and implementing evaluations of their RESEA programs.

A 2022 implementation study report drew on data from three waves of a web-based survey of all state RESEA directors. Since completion of that report, the study team conducted a fourth survey wave. Relying on these longitudinal data, this brief addresses the following research questions: 

Appendix to the Tracking Changes in Program Implementation: Findings from Multiple Rounds of the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Implementation Survey Issue Brief.

The handbook is a Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Evaluation Technical Assistance product to help states and their evaluators to conduct cost-benefit analyses of their RESEA programs.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor Abt Global (Abt) and its subcontractors, MDRC, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), and Trewon Technologies, to conduct the Sectoral Strategies and Employer Engagement Portfolio Services Project (SSEEP).

This report describes the design for the implementation evaluation of the Scaling Apprenticeship through Sector-Based Strategies grants (referred to throughout the report as Scaling Apprenticeship grants) and the Apprenticeships: Closing the Skills Gap grants (referred to throughout the report as Closing the Skills Gap grants).

The Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio Evaluation Design Pre-Specification Plan follows the template that evaluators must use to meet the pre-specification practices articulated in OMB Memo M-20-12 Phase 4 Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018: Program Evaluation Standards and Practices.

The report provides analysis of intermediate impacts on participation in and completion of TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) programs training, receipt of credentials, and use of child care and other services, as well as on longer-term outcomes such as employment and earnings, advancement and job quality, and other, exploratory outcomes such as overall well-being, health, and housing status at about 2 years following random assignment. 

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes the grantees’ experiences during their first year of implementation. This brief discusses the grants and describes the types of organizations funded, their locations, staffing structures, partnerships, and the services provided.

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes the grantees’ experiences during their first year of implementation. This brief details how the Pathway Home grantees implemented services and established community partnerships provide community-based services that address participant needs and help connect them to employment opportunities.

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes their experiences establishing the pre-release components of their programs during their first year of implementation. This brief describes how the Pathway Home grantees awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2021 established programs within correctional facilities, including the challenges they encountered and the solutions they identified to address those challenges.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in collaboration with the Office of Workforce Investment (OWI) located in the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), funded independent contractor Economic Systems, Inc. (EconSys) to conduct the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) Evaluation.

The report presents the design of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigators Implementation Study, which is one of the components of the Navigator Study Portfolio Project being conducted by Mathematica and its partners Social Policy Research Associates and Needels Consulting, LLC.

The brief is part of the State Apprenticeship Systems Capacity Assessment Study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, which is aimed at understanding how state apprenticeship systems operate to achieve goals.

The brief is part of the State Apprenticeship Systems Capacity Assessment Study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, which is aimed at understanding how state apprenticeship systems operate to achieve goals. This brief discusses how states use incentives to promote and expand apprenticeship, the benefits of incentives, and the challenges in the administration and implementation of incentives.