Resource Library

The Systems Study captures the perspectives of 15 program operators and their partners on the extent to which systems activities of the HPOG 2.0 programs—collaboration, improved access to and quality of training and services, employer engagement, data sharing, and sustainability—improved how their systems functioned.

Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 2.0) Intermediate-Term Impact Report 

Running from 2015 to 2021, the second round of the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Health Profession Opportunity Grants Program (“HPOG 2.0”) funded grantees to provide support services and healthcare occupational training according to career pathways principles.  ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is administering a robust evaluation of the HPOG 2.0 effort: the National and Tribal Evaluation of the 2nd Generation of Health Profession Opportunity Grants.  The National Evaluation of 27 non-Tribal grantees is comparing outcomes and impacts for program applicants randomly assigned access to the grantees’ HPOG 2.0 programs (treatment group) versus those randomly assigned access only to services available elsewhere in the community (control group).

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, disrupting American lives, labor markets, and local HPOG 2.0 programs.  To better understand how COVID changed outcomes and impacts for HPOG 2.0 study members relative to the pre-COVID period, OPRE contracted with Abt Associates to conduct the HPOG 2.0 National Evaluation COVID-Cohort Study.

This Analysis Plan describes the methodology for answering the study’s key research questions.  The document also improves the transparency and replicability of study findings by committing the research team to make consequential decisions prior to inspecting estimates of program impacts.  Most methods and operationalizations of outcomes measures continue from earlier HPOG 2.0 impact analyses and are described in previous Analysis Plans.  This Analysis Plan therefore primarily focuses on specifying analytic methods and presentation strategies specific to this study’s understanding of how COVID shifted the HPOG 2.0 program.

Learn how state TANF agencies use data to monitor and improve programs and build evidence in the TANF Data Innovation Needs Assessment Brief.

Carreras increased receipt of a college credential requiring at least one year of full-time college but not average quarterly earnings at the six-year follow-up, the two confirmatory outcomes in this report.

This report discusses issues related to selecting and testing measures of self-regulation skills in evaluations of employment programs for low-income populations. First, it presents an overview of criteria for selecting measures of self-regulation skills. Second, through a presentation of empirical evidence, this report demonstrates a process for developing and testing self-regulation measures in the context of an impact evaluation of employment coaching programs for low-income populations. Third, it discusses how the process could be adapted to other studies.

This report documents the impacts of the Patient Care Pathway Program (PCPP) three years after random assignment. Operated between 2011 and 2014 by Madison Area Technical College (hereafter referred to as “Madison College”) in Madison, Wisconsin, PCPP aimed to help low-skilled adults access and complete occupational training in the growing healthcare sector.

This report describes the operation of an intensive job search assistance program for cash assistance recipients in Westchester County, New York, and provides lessons for other policymakers and program administrators interested in the approach. In 2016-2017, Westchester County operated a full-time, eight-week course designed to teach job readiness and job search skills.

This brief reviews the design and administration of the EITC and summarizes the literature on the EITC’s effects on work, wages, poverty, financial stability, and other nonfinancial benefits, giving special attention to the way program outcomes might depend on or relate to payment timing. The authors discuss how changing the EITC’s payment structures may affect recipients and how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) carries out the EITC to highlight important considerations and possible trade-offs. The brief identifies areas where additional research is needed to better understand these relationships and trade-offs related to payment timing.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseloads have plummeted since the program was enacted in 1996…