This report describes the evaluation design for the HPOG National Implementation Evaluation. The design focuses on the 27 non-tribal HPOG grantees and addresses: how health professions training programs are being implemented; changes to the service delivery system associated with program implementation; individual-level outputs and outcomes; and what key components and factors appear necessary or seem likely to contribute to the success of the programs. The evaluation involves three related analyses: a Descriptive Implementation Study, a Systems Change Analysis, and an Outcome Study. The report was written as part of the HPOG Implementation, Systems and Outcome Project and the HPOG National Implementation Evaluation, which are both led by Abt Associates in partnership with the Urban Institute. (author abstract)

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released this report that states that, as of Fall 2012, more than 50 million U.S. adults (about 25 percent of the adult population) had received a professional certification, license, or educational certificate that was not a degree awarded by a college or university. Of the awardees, some 34 million had a professional certification of license, 7 million had an educational certificate, and 12 million had received both a professional certification or license and an educational certificate.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released the HPOG Annual Report to highlight information regarding the program after its second year of operation. The report provides an overview of HPOG grantees, characteristics of participants, activities in which participants were engaged, training and employment outcomes, and how grantee programs continued to evolve in the second year of the program. The report was developed as part of the HPOG Implementation, Systems, and Outcome Project, which is being led by Abt Associates in partnership with the Urban Institute.

The West Coast Poverty Center released a short summary about a study that explores matched savings programs and low-income people's ability to accumulate assets depending on individual desires to save and ability to act on those preferences. The paper defines "time preference," a concept that describes how present- or future-oriented a person may be, and discusses the ways in which variations in time preferences are important for understanding individual financial outcomes. The researchers used data from a 2002-2009 matched savings program to conduct factor analysis, and found that persons with lower future orientation had significantly lower average savings deposit amounts in their first year in the matched savings program.

The National Center for Children in Poverty released a policy report offering a summary of the various approaches States are taking or propose to take to balance their budget. The report highlights revenue and spending side approaches that are protective of low-income families and endeavor to identify some best practices that other States might adopt. The report closes by drawing some lessons in fiscal management that may help States better weather future downturns without putting their most vulnerable populations at risk.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released a policy brief detailing certain additions to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill that reauthorized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under the updated legislation, low-income college students are eligible for SNAP benefits. Even after accounting for all financial aid, many low-income college students have thousands of dollars of unmet need, even when they attend low-cost institutions such as community colleges. This need often leads students to drop out of college, or to work so many hours that it interferes with their attendance and success in classes. SNAP benefits will now help low-income college students meet their basic needs so they can afford and focus on their education.

Interest in the quality of provider-family relationships in early care and education (ECE) settings has sharpened the focus on defining and measuring elements of these relationships across settings for program improvement purposes.  In this brief, authors examine the alignment of research-based elements of family-provider partnerships with professional and performance standards from three national ECE organizations as well as selected professional competencies and Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) family partnership indicators from two states. The purpose is to inform the development of common definitions, expectations about what providers need to know and do, and measures that more closely capture quality in this domain across systems. (author abstract)

The Institute for Research on Poverty released an article discussing a new policy being tested in New York City that adopts the conditional cash transfer principle and that is extended to a broader set of family efforts to build human capital. Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards seeks to boost family income in the short-term while building families' capacity to avoid poverty in the long-term without increasing their reliance on government assistance. In this article, a summary of the results of a published random assignment evaluation is provided, showing that the program had more modest effects than had been anticipated.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families released a report outlining their portfolio of research related to welfare and family self-sufficiency projects for the fiscal year 2013. OPRE's research focuses on four major areas: TANF and the Safety Net, Employment and the Labor Market, Education and Training, and other relevant cross-cutting research.