Labor Market and Industry Studies

Talent Metric Evaluation (Oregon Talent Council)

August 8, 2017 Leave a Comment

Principal Investigator:	Heath J. Prince, PhD
Sponsor(s):	TIP Strategies
Project Duration:	May 2017 – August 2017
Description:	The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) will partner with TIP Strategies in the creation of an evaluation methodology for the Oregon Talent Council (OTC) that relies on new and innovative ways to measure the impact of talent investment in Oregon, and that can accurately and consistently track outcomes of interest. The project is composed of the following activities, divided into two phases: Phase 1 will develop a metrics methodology for OTC-related investments—how to measure investments in the niches that the Talent Council has identified as gaps. While the methodology will show how OTC metrics applies to an overall talent development framework, it will not develop detailed metrics for education and workforce investments controlled by other state agencies. Phase 2 will seek to develop a methodology for identifying key measures (approximately 5-7) by which aspects or desired outcomes of talent development could be benchmarked against other states. The primary purpose of the methodology for this phase is to establish a baseline to understand Oregon’s relative position in desired talent outcomes and be able to track the relative state’s progress over time.
Reports Available:

Ray Marshall meets with organizers on comprehensive immigration reform

March 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

With immigration reform being front and center these days, Dr. Marshall has responded to several requests since the election from print and broadcast media to discuss immigration-related issues. In addition, he is consulting with a coalition of labor and other organizations who have reached out to him to help craft a plan for comprehensive immigration reform. Two recent meetings hosted by Dr. Marshall in Austin, TX, brought together members of the AFL-CIO, United Way Worldwide, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Economic Policy Institute to delve deeper into the issues.

The first meeting was held on Wednesday, 3/15, and included Jon Hiatt, Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO, and Ana Avendaño, Vice President of Labor Participation at United Way Worldwide.

The second meeting was held on 3/17 and included Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at EPI; Naomi Tsu, Deputy Legal Director of the Immigrant Justice Program at SPLC; Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy at the AFL-CIO; and Susan Marshall, lecturer at Concordia University.

Strategic Planning for San Antonio Works

February 21, 2017 Leave a Comment

Principal Investigator:	Greg Cumpton, PhD
Sponsor(s):	San Antonio Works and San Antonio Economic Development Foundation
Project Duration:	November 2016 – August 2017
Description:	The Ray Marshall Center (RMC) along with consulting partner Jobs for the Future (JFF) will work with SA Works to develop an action plan for future work. The primary steps in developing the plan include: A needs assessment involving stakeholder surveys, focus groups, and interviews Development of a draft action plan including a defined process for review and revision—leads to mapping presentation Aid in an initial convening of stakeholders providing guidance in development and feasibility of metrics guided by a collective impact process Development of processes and sources to obtain and manage regular, meaningful data collection and reporting mechanisms for the collective impact group or groups Provide recommendations for sustainability, including to ensure the continued participation of stakeholders in the continuing collective action process and guide stakeholders in seeking core and supplemental funding sources to support the regional effort Create two final action plans, one related to the collective impact efforts, and another, reflecting lessons learned through the development of the former, for future implementation by SA Works staff.
Reports Available:

RMC presence at APPAM’s annual fall research conference

December 20, 2016 Leave a Comment

Several RMC researchers attended the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management’s (APPAM) 2016 Fall Research Conference, The Role of Research in Making Government More Effective, held at the Washington Hilton in DC from Nov. 3-5. Dr. Heath Prince along with Dr. Chris King, Dr. Daniel Schroeder, Ashweeta Patnaik, and Sam Storey were all in attendance, with Chris, Daniel, and Ashweeta presenting some of their work as detailed below.

Social Science Research Associate Ashweeta Patnaik presented two posters. The first poster, presented on Nov. 3rd, highlighted the findings from the Center’s impact evaluation of the Gulf Coast IT Pathways project. In addition to sharing findings regarding the program’s impacts on participants’ education and labor market outcomes, she also focused on the challenges associated with evaluating a large multi-state consortium initiative. Her second poster, presented on Nov. 5th, highlighted the findings from the Center’s impact evaluation of Project GROW. Ms. Patnaik shared how the complex design of the demonstration project (which included multiple sites, differentiated service delivery and multiple program offerings) influenced the impact evaluation design and analysis, along with the evaluation’s findings regarding the program’s impacts on participants’ education and labor market outcomes.

Research Scientist Dr. Daniel Schroeder presented a paper on Nov. 4th demonstrating the success of a near-universal child support system known as the Texas Integrated Child Support System (ICSS). His presentation was part of a panel discussion “Noncustodial Fathers’ Contributions: Recent Trends and Consequences of Child Support Policy in the United States.”

Senior Research Scientist Dr. Chris King organized and chaired a roundtable on “Global Perspectives on Policies to Protect Workers” on Nov. 5th. Professors Hastings and Heyes from Sheffield University’s WOERRC, as well as Karen Livingston with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Ludek Rychly with the International Labour Office in Geneva, presented at the roundtable. Ms. Livingston is an LBJ alum (Class of ’02) and a past president of the LBJ School Alumni Association.

Cynthia Juniper and Heath Prince have report published to Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

August 24, 2016 Leave a Comment

RMC researchers Cynthia Juniper and Heath Prince co-authored a report that has recently been added to the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale’s Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development (OJWED). The report, Behavioral Economics and Workforce Development: A Review of the Literature from Labor Economics and the Broader Field, is intended to explore the strengths and limitations of applying tools of behavioral sciences to increase the participation and completion rate of training for lower-wage, front-line incumbent workers in ways that benefit both workers and sponsoring firms. You can view OJWED’s publication here.

This review and associated research on behavioral economics and workforce development were generously funded by the Hitachi Foundation.

RMC Research Spotlighted in Recent Issue of the Employment & Training Reporter

March 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

The March 9, 2015 issue of the Employment & Training Reporter featured Heath Prince and Chris King’s work on the State Workforce and Education Alignment Project (SWEAP) for the National Skills Coalition. Their paper, Using Pathway Evaluators for State Workforce Planning, which was written with NSC co-authors Bryan Wilson and Brooke DeRenzis, offers a step-by-step process for evaluating the effectiveness of career pathways. A courtesy reprint from MII Publications can be read here.

Heath Prince and Chris King Co-Author SWEAP Papers with National Skills Coalition

March 3, 2015 Leave a Comment

Heath Prince and Chris King co-authored a set of State Workforce and Education Alignment Project (SWEAP) papers just issued by the National Skills Coalition. The two reports present new tools that provide policymakers the information they need to improve the effectiveness of states’ workforce and education programs to create career pathways for people with a diversity of needs. They also explain how states can create web-based and interactive dashboards to evaluate their ability to help residents get jobs requiring postsecondary training while providing employers with skilled workers. The two papers can be found below.

Using Pathway Evaluators for State Workforce Planning

Using Dashboards for State Workforce Planning