This fourth annual report provides a snapshot of Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program grantee activities from its inception through September 2014, its fourth year of operation. Drawing from the program’s Performance Reporting System and Year 4 Performance Progress Reports, the report summarizes program operations and participant activity and outcomes. Information provided includes participant characteristics, support service receipt, healthcare training course participation patterns, and employment outcomes. (author abstract)

This report documents the structure, study components and data sources of the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) project. In recent years, career pathways have emerged as an innovative framework for improving education, training and skills, and improving economic self-sufficiency. PACE is the first-ever randomized trial of career pathways programs, featuring 9 of the country’s leading and innovative programs.

The evaluation design report includes:

• an overview of PACE and the career pathways framework;
• a description of the program selection process, the sites, and research questions;
• a study timeline; a list of deliverables;
• a description of the implementation study;
• a description of the impact study; and
• a description of the cost-benefit study; and information about data sources. (author abstract)

This brief provides an overview of the Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC) Tribal HPOG program, key findings to date, and stories from students who have benefitted from the program. Findings focus on program structures, program processes, and program outcomes, and is based on qualitative data from interviews with administrative and program implementation staff, focus groups with the TMCC students, and phone interviews with program completers and non-completers, as well as administrative data. It is part of a series of briefs being developed by the Tribal HPOG evaluation team, comprised of NORC at the University of Chicago, Red Star Innovations and the National Indian Health Board (NIHB). (author abstract)

Youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood need many supports to navigate the challenges they face. Over the past three decades, federal child welfare policy has significantly increased the availability of those supports. In 1999, the Foster Care Independence Act amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (the Chafee Program). This amendment doubled the maximum amount of funds potentially available to states for independent living services and gave states greater discretion over how they use those funds. More recently, a provision in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 gave states an option to extend eligibility for Title IV-E foster care for youth beyond age 18 until age 21. In states that have taken this option, young people can receive an additional three years of foster care support to prepare for the transition into adulthood.

ACF contracted with the Urban Institute and its partner Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to plan for the next generation of evaluation activities funded by the Chafee Program.  This brief focuses on educational programs.  The brief reviews what we currently know about educational attainment of youth in foster care, considers the existing evidence on the effectiveness of educational programs, and concludes with issues for the field to consider as we move toward the next evaluation of the Chafee Program. (author abstract)

A substantial skills gap exists between the education and training of the labor force and the needs of employers in many high growth industries, including healthcare and manufacturing. This gap results in unemployment while good paying jobs go unfilled. At the same time, many low-skilled adults persist in low wage work with little opportunity for advancement.

Career pathways programs, like Year Up, are an approach to fill a vital need for skilled workers in the economy and offer low-wage workers the opportunity to obtain occupational and other skills and advance into the middle class.

This brief was produced by Abt Associates as part of the Innovative Strategies to Increase Self-Sufficiency (ISIS) project, a random assignment evaluation of nine promising career pathways programs that aim to improve employment and self-sufficiency outcomes for low-income, low-skilled individuals. (author abstract)