This resource from the American Academy of Pediatrics provides evidence and research to support early literacy within the family. Professionals are encouraged to talk to parents about the importance of early literacy and support family efforts to read and learn together. The brief also provides evidence that these early reading activities increase children’s readiness for school.

This practice brief introduces the Tribal HPOG 2.0 evaluation, provides a summary of the findings of the Tribal HPOG 1.0 evaluation, and examines how the evaluation of the first program informed the second. The Tribal HPOG 2.0 program encourages individuals to enter the healthcare field through supporting demonstration projects that equip those individuals with the necessary education and training. It is the first in a series of briefs that will be disseminated to share lessons learned and findings from the program evaluation.

This Urban Institute report details an evaluation of a high school internship program at Urban Alliance in Washington, DC. The program provided training, an internship, and mentorship to high school seniors at risk of becoming disconnected from school and work. Using an experimental design, the researchers compared outcomes between the treatment and control groups two years after high school. Key findings include an increase in the probability of graduating from high school and enrolling and persisting in college for males in the treatment group, as well as a positive impact on hard and soft skills at the one year mark.

This reference resource from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation is a guide for the use of cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) to be conducted at six of the nine Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) programs that are part of the Career Pathways Intermediate Outcomes (CPIO) study. The study looks at how to monetize and determine the cost and benefits of the net present value (NPV), which can be a useful tool to policymakers when making decisions about what works in employment and self-sufficiency programming.

In high-demand sectors, employers often have difficulty finding applicants with the right skills, and job seekers need training to qualify for those positions. WorkAdvance is a workforce development model that treats both employers and jobseekers as customers in these high demand sectors. This MDRC brief draws on an evaluation of four WorkAdvance programs to analyze whether they impact the long-term upward economic mobility of participants. The programs were Per Scholas and St. Nicks Alliance in New York, Madison Strategies Group in Oklahoma, and Towards Employment in Ohio. The researchers analyzed economic impacts through three years of follow-up, and they found that some sector programs had positive effects that lasted beyond two years. In some cases the economic impacts strengthened after two years, especially for long-term unemployed participants who were reentering the labor market.

In this issue brief, the National Skills Coalition proposes a $500 million Career Pathways Support Fund that would allow community colleges to provide classes and support services to non-traditional and low-income students pursuing job-driven degrees and certificates. The issue brief describes the need to support the need for postsecondary education for low-income working adults, since 80% of jobs will require some postsecondary training. Arkansas, Iowa, and North Carolina have all pursued statewide career pathways initiatives and there is some federal support for career pathways, but these efforts are not sufficient to fulfill the demand for postsecondary training that leads to high-wage employment. The Career Pathways Support Fund would fund partnerships between community colleges and employers that would offer students courses and support services leading to an industry-recognized credential.

This Urban Institute report, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation describes the first year of the second round of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program (HPOG 2.0). Under HPOG 2.0, TANF participants receive education and training for high-demand, high-wage healthcare occupations. In this first year report, the authors describe the 21 grantees, the services they offer, and the characteristics of participants. HPOG 2.0 programs enrolled 5,150 participants in Year One and offered training in 66 different occupations, and the majority of participants were women with at least one child. Many participants remained in training after Year One, but 19% had started jobs or received a promotion.

This series from MDRC explores what networks of organizations can accomplish in communities. The researchers are focusing on nine Chicago neighborhoods, combining social network analysis with in-depth interviews to see how community organizations can collaborate with one another on local improvement projects. Specifically, the researchers are studying how networks affect the power of individual community groups, how networks promote effective partnerships, how those partnerships can unite people from diverse communities, and how those networks change over time. The first two parts of the series provide an introduction to social network analysis and illustrate the power in networks of community organizations.