About the Ray Marshall Center
In 1970, the Center for the Study of Human Resources was established by Ray Marshall to support the research of pressing social and economic problems facing American workers. The Center’s first three projects focused on black employment in the South, comparing apprenticeship with other training routes to skilled employment in construction and the South’s rural workforce. These projects not only provided high-quality research on timely issues, but did so with a focus on providing practical recommendations to improve strategies, practices, and knowledge. This type of action research has driven the Center’s activities ever since.
Project Spotlight
With the support of JPMorgan Chase, The Aspen Institute, UP Partnership, and William Stamps Farish Fund, the Ray Marshall Center is examining the pathways taken by Opportunity Youth in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. This five-year grant and supplemental funding, known as Evaluating Services for Texas Opportunity Youth (ESTOY), represents one of the largest efforts undertaken in Texas to date to study the systems that serve, and the trajectories taken by, disconnected young adults (between the ages of 18 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor working) after participation in a youth-serving program.
The study aims to determine the size of the OY population in each of these cities, map out OY-serving organizations in each of the study’s cities, as well as measure programmatic impact in terms of employment and/or enrollment in postsecondary education. In addition to providing a clearer picture of the OY landscape, it is our expectation that the study findings will inform OY policy for the state.
Featured Publication
PATHS for Texas: Descriptive Statistics, Outcomes, Impacts, ROI, Survey Results, and Qualitative Summary 2025 Final Report
Authors: Thomas Boswell, Patty Rodriguez, and Heath Prince
Date: June 2025
Publication Type: Report, 62pp.
Summary
The data presented in this report represent individuals who participated in PATHS for Texas from its start date in 2020 through June of 2025. As of June 2025, 2,519 individuals registered to participate in the PATHs for Texas program from four Texas Workforce Development Boards (WDB) across the state (Coastal Bend, Gulf Coast, Rural Capital Area, and North Texas). We present findings from a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis, conducted to assess the economic returns to taxpayers and society resulting from investment in PATHS training. We also report on the outcomes of three surveys completed in the past three years: one survey of active PATHS participants, one of inactive participants, and one of PATHS participant employers. Finally, we report preliminary findings from an implementation evaluation of PATHS.
Associated White Paper: https://www.wfsdallas.com/paths/
Associated full project video: https://vimeo.com/1113664950?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci Access password: paths
