| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Corporation for a Skilled Workforce |
| Project Duration: | June 2020 – December 2021 |
| Description: | With assistance from the California Workforce Association (CWA), the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) and the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) of the University of Texas are partnering to evaluate the effectiveness of American Job Centers of California (AJCC) system using a mixed-methods and multi-part research design to achieve the objectives below:
– To understand how the four different models of service delivery in use in California affect a) overall access to services and, more importantly, b) the mix of services provided to the client population served. – To understand how investment decisions pertaining to AJCC infrastructure, staffing levels, and number of locations affect a) overall access to services and, more importantly b) the mix of services provided to the client population served. – To understand whether there is any relationship between participant program outcomes and the mix of services provided to the client population served. Do some models of service delivery and some types of investment decisions pertaining to AJCCs appear to be systematically related to participant program outcomes?
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| Reports Available: |
Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Protection Resilience Efficiency and Prevention for Workers in Industrial Agriculture in Changing Climate
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | National Science Foundation, Belmont Forum |
| Consortium Lead: | University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Project Duration: | January 2020 – December 2022 |
| Description: | Chronic kidney disease of undetermined cause (CKDu), affects millions of workers in Latin America and Asia. Treatment is expensive, resulting in early death for those affected. Strenuous work in extreme heat without sufficient rest and hydration is considered a main driver. Industrial agriculture is the most affected, especially the sugarcane sector. Without prevention, this epidemic is likely to accelerate due to climate change. Increasing temperatures, coupled with decreasing precipitation in drier agricultural regions, is also causing pesticides and other toxins to concentrate at higher levels.
As a response to this heat stress related disease, we have collectively implemented the Adelante Initiative, a workplace intervention with focus on adequate water, and rest in shade together with improved ergonomics, designed to prevent CKDu among workers at a sugarcane mill in Nicaragua. Due to the high prevalence of CKDu among sugarcane workers, we are concentrating our efforts in this sector; from there we will adapt the program to other geographies and industries. Our proposed project builds on current efforts and investigates the following: 1) the immediate and long-term impact the intervention has on workforce health (kidney health and heat related injuries) and productivity; 2) the economic and social impacts on those affected by the disease and whether our intervention aids in resilience, including mitigating migration pressures; 3) the economic burden on health systems treating CKDu; and 4) an analysis of public health policies to understand what policies, or absence of policy, have contributed to the disease while investigating what policies are required to effectively address it. The knowledge gained will create the groundwork to expand to other sugarcane mills and eventually other industries at-risk for heat stress and CKDu. As climate change means more extreme temperatures in already impacted regions, and the likelihood that regions further north and south of the equator will also be impacted by CKDu, it is essential a model to protect worker health and productivity is developed. |
| Reports Available: | A Measure of the Return on Ingenio San Antonio’s Investment in the Adelante Initiative: An Initial Estimate of Costs and Benefits of a Water, Rest, and Shade Intervention Author: Heath Prince, PhD Date: May 2020 Publication Type: Report, 7 pp. Prepared for the La Isla Network, with funding from the Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) The Economic Impact of CKDnt on Households: Survey Findings from a Pilot Study of a Workers’ Association, Asochivida, and of the Communities of La Isla, Manhattan, and Candalaria, Nicaragua |
HPOG Secondary Data Analysis
| Principal Investigator: | Christopher T. King, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation |
| Project Duration: | December 2019 – December 2021 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center will evaluate the variation in program characteristics – including program components, implementation features, local context, and participant traits – to explore which characteristics are associated with Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program participant’s healthcare profession career pathway outcomes. This research will address the following questions:
Similar to the previous research on the impact of HPOG program characteristics on educational achievement (Peck et al., 2018 and Walton et al., 2019), this research expects to identify supports such as childcare and transportation assistance, tuition, and other financial assistance, as well as employment supports and emergency assistance associated with CNA participant achievements along a career pathway. Practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers may be interested in which combination of program components, implementation strategies, participant characteristics, and local context may impact a CNA participant to pursue the next step along a healthcare profession career pathway. Insights from this research can inform future program design and implementation within the broader field of entry level healthcare provider workforce development. |
| Reports Available: |
Pursuit of Advanced Training in High-Demand Skills (PATHS) for Texas
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas |
| Project Duration: | January 2020 – March 2022 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center will provide research support to the PATHS (Pursuit of Advanced Training in High-Demand Skills) for Texas project in partnership with Workforce Solutions Dallas. The goal of the PATHS project is to implement a statewide retail sector incumbent worker career advancement strategy. The RMC’s primary role under this grant will be to evaluate outcomes in order to provide evidence of success and efficacy for expansion and regional replication. Specifically, the RMC will undertake the following tasks related to (1) performing an independent evaluation of quantitative outcomes for PATHS; (2) conduct an end-of-grant cost-benefit analysis; and (3) the RMC will conduct the final evaluation report. |
| Reports Available: |
Evaluation of the Upskill ATX Pilot Program
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Workforce Solutions Capital Area |
| Project Duration: | July 2019 – July 2021 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center will assist the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership (CTHP) by conducting an evaluation of the Upskill ATX Pilot Project. Specifically, this evaluation will provide: 1) A quantitative assessment of the outcomes of each pilot; as well as 2) A qualitative analysis of those factors that contributed to and/or inhibited specific outcomes, in order to document lessons learned and inform future workforce development investments. In addition, the evaluation will provide recommendations around options to strengthen and scale Central Texas efforts to upskill incumbent workers. |
| Reports Available: |
Evaluation of the Financial Literacy Pilot Initiative
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, PhD |
| Sponsor: | California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office |
| Project Duration: | July 2019 – June 2021 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center is conducting an evaluation of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office’s Financial Literacy Pilot Initiative. Sixteen California community colleges are participating in this pilot. Participating colleges will send students money management tips via texts or emails over the course of ten weeks. Participating colleges will share individual-level data on program participants with RMC. RMC will analyze this data to assess the impact of CCCCO’s financial literacy pilot on student outcomes such as GPA, credit attainment, retention, graduation, and credential attainment. RMC will report on participant outcomes and perform a quasi-experimental evaluation of the program. |
| Reports Available: | Evaluation of the CCCCO Financial Literacy Pilot: Year One Annual Report Authors: Ashweeta Patnaik, Cynthia Juniper, and Greg Cumpton Date: December 2020 Publication Type: Report, 60pp. Evaluation of the CCCCO Financial Literacy Pilot Interim Report |
Child Care Cost of Quality Modeling Study
| Principal Investigator: | Daniel Schroeder, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Texas Workforce Commission |
| Project Duration: | May 2019 – April 2021 |
| Description: | Researchers from the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) will conduct a study of the cost of providing quality child care in the state of Texas, the purpose of which is to provide estimates of how much more additional funding, in terms of daily rates, should be paid to providers who meet quality standards to care for children, relative to how much providers who do not meet such standards are paid. The study will be done in conjunction with the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing (TICFW), who will be responsible for consulting on the design of a pair of surveys to capture important quality factors and pricing information, and fielding the surveys to carefully selected samples of home- and center-based child care facilities. |
| Reports Available: |
Project QUEST Evaluation
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Economic Mobility Corporation, Inc |
| Project Duration: | January 2018 – December 2021 |
| Description: | Project QUEST provides employment training and services aligned with the skills most in demand by San Antonio, Texas employers. The Ray Marshall Center will be working with the Economic Mobility Corporation, Inc (Mobility) and building around their recent program evaluation of Project QUEST. This innovative partnership links both QUEST participants and similar non-participants to Texas Unemployment Insurance wage records. By combining self-reported and administrative data, the research will seek to verify self-reported outcomes, enhance the longitudinal tracking of employment and earnings both prior to and after completing QUEST, and measure long-term impacts of program participation. |
| Reports Available: |
Community Workforce Plan Evaluation
| Principal Investigator: | Greg Cumpton, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Workforce Solutions Capital Area |
| Project Duration: | January 2018 – December 2021 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) has partnered with Workforce Solutions Capital Area (WFSCA) to evaluate the progress of the Austin Metro Area Master Community Workforce Plan. The objective of the Master Plan is to effectively engage employers, community-based organizations, and educational institutions to more efficiently match employers’ skill needs and successfully prepare economically disadvantaged residents for family-sustaining careers. The RMC will investigate the educational and labor market outcomes of workforce development program participants, as well as variations in such results associated with demographic, personal, educational, and programmatic service regimes of the participants. RMC staff will work with WFSCA staff and area training providers to identify paths to the successful implementation of the Master Plan. |
| Reports Available: | Austin Metro Area Community Workforce Plan Year Two Evaluation Report Authors: Greg Cumpton, Cynthia Juniper, and Ashweeta Patnaik Date: September 2020 Publication Type: Report, 50pp. Austin Metro Area Master Community Workforce Plan Year One Evaluation Report Austin Metro Area Master Community Workforce Plan Baseline Evaluation Report Family Work Support Benefits: An assessment of food and child care supports in the Austin, Texas metro area (MCWP Supplement: Poverty) |
Data Linkage for Padua™ Project Evaluation
| Principal Investigator: | Ashweeta Patnaik, MPH |
| Sponsor: | Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, University of Notre Dame |
| Project Duration: | April 2018 – December 2024 |
| Description: | The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame is examining the impact of an innovative comprehensive case management program, the Padua™ Program, created by Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW). The program is designed to permanently lift people out of poverty. It addresses the fact that the disadvantaged face complex, multifaceted, and interrelated challenges by offering a new approach that considers the whole person and his or her environment by providing (a) detailed needs assessment, (b) wrap-around case management, and (c) financial resources. LEO is conducting a study to examine through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation whether this innovative intervention improves the well-being of low-income individuals.
The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) is supporting LEO in its research by linking data on Padua™ program participants to administrative data on employment, wages, TANF participation, and SNAP participation. RMC will help LEO evaluate the impact of assignment to the Padua™ intervention on TANF and SNAP participation, as well as on employment and earnings. |
| Reports Available: |
