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
Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2024 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, David McCoy, Heath Prince (Principal Investigator), and Thomas Boswell
Date: December 2024
Publication Type: Report, 174 pp.
To understand program participant outcomes and the impact of these services, the county has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This report presents findings and analyses of programs funded during a seven-year, on-going evaluation (FY 2016–FY 2023).
