While the United States has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly low at the nation's community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate percentage of low-income and nontraditional college students. Seeking to address this problem, in 2014 three…

This report summarizes the two-year findings of a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the WorkAdvance model, a sectoral training and advancement initiative. Launched in 2011, WorkAdvance goes beyond the previous generation of employment programs by introducing demand-driven skills training and a focus on jobs that have career pathways. The…

The FNS Research Corner provides a continuing series to summarize recently completed and current research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the area of child nutrition. Summaries of recently completed research projects and in-progress research are provided in this article.

This report summarizes the two-year findings of a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the WorkAdvance model, a sectoral training, and advancement initiative. Launched in 2011, WorkAdvance goes beyond the previous generation of employment programs by introducing demand-driven skills training and a focus on jobs that have career pathways. The…

One of the original purposes of student financial aid was to ensure fairer access to post-secondary education to those least able to afford it and to those traditionally underrepresented. Various federal and state programs were put in place to achieve this goal, including the federal Pell Grant and state aid programs. Yet policymakers and…

This report summarizes the evaluation of civilian training in six Federal government agencies. A representative sample of executive, managerial, technical, clerical and scientific training programs were selected. The project's purposes were: (1) to produce useful examples of systematic training evaluation; and (2) to generate recommendations for…

The Southeast Minnesota Educational Cooperative Service Unit (SMECSU) is an organization of public and nonpublic school districts that voluntarily joined together to provide educational programs and services which could best be done cooperatively. Of 54 school districts in the 11-county region, 23 public schools joined SMECSU the first year, along…

A demonstration adult education project aimed at a rural New Jersey population and involving class sessions 1 evening per week at 6 sites (N=85 students, including 65 caucasians, 10 blacks, and 10 Hispanic) was evaluated in terms of compliance, process, and performance. Compliance monitoring included examination of: visitations; budget; staff…

An evaluation system for measuring the cost effectiveness of protective services for abused and neglected children was developed and field tested. The system permits the collection and analysis of definitive, quantifiable data to determine: (1) which service agencies, individually, or as aggregated by states or regions, are most effective in…