RESEARCH AND RESOURCES
Program Evaluations and Research
This section provides evaluations and research conducted on State TANF-related programs and services.
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Authored by Andrew Burwick, Vinita Jethwani, Alicia Meckstroth. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. report chronicles the implementation experiences of three demonstration programs participating in the Rural Welfare-to-Work (RWtW) Strategies Demonstration Evaluation. Mathematica conducted the evaluation with subcontractors, Decision Information Resources and the Rural Policy Research Institute. The findings and lessons on the implementation of the RWtW demonstration programs focus primarily on program development and client experiences; institutional partnerships and local connections; and outreach, staffing, and management. Researchers gathered information for the process and implementation study through in-depth site visits to each program (conducted between February 2002 and August 2003) and management information systems (MIS).
To view or download:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/rwtw/rwtw_title.html
Authored by Charles Michalopoulos. This MDRC report examines an array of welfare policies to help states determine which programs and policies best help single parents transition from welfare to work. The report examines the effects of over 25 welfare-to-work programs, including those that use job-search-first, education-first, and mixed-activity job-search and education/training strategies, as well as programs that use earnings supplements to encourage employment.
To view or download:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/whatw_best/whatw_best_title.html
This report, compiled by researchers from Abt Associates, Child Trends, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, and Mathematica Policy Research, was released in February 2004. The report synthesizes the impact findings from the Project on State-Level Child Outcomes, an initiative under which the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, along with a number of other Federal
agencies and private foundations, provided funds to augment the welfare reform demonstration evaluations in five states (Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota) to assess the effects of different welfare reform approaches on child well being. At the outset of the project, all
five states already had demonstration evaluations under way that used random-assignment experimental designs. These evaluations, however, focused primarily on adult behaviors and outcomes, such as changes in earnings and welfare dependency. The Project on State-Level Child Outcomes added detailed data on children and family processes to the evaluations. The primary data source for each state study was a survey that focused mainly on young school-aged children (i.e., those between the ages of five and twelve at the time of the interview). The follow-up period for the survey varied among the states, ranging from 2½ to 6½ years after random assignment. Each of the individual states participating in the project has published its own
child impact findings, beginning with Minnesota in 2000 and ending with Iowa in 2002.
To view or download:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/
welfare_reform_children/welfare_reform_toc.html
Authored by Robert G. Wood, Anu Rangarajan, and John Deke. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. report compares the characteristics and experiences of two groups of Work First New Jersey clients: 1) an early group that participated in the first year of program operations from July 1997 to June 1998; and 2) a later group participating from July 2000 to June 2001. The report finds that the caseload characteristics changed substantially during the recent period of rapid caseload decline, with a growing proportion of clients facing employment challenges.
To view or download:
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/redirect_pubsdb.asp?strSite=pdfs/earlywfnj.pdf
Authored by Pietro S. Nivola, Jennifer L. Noyes, and Isabell V. Sawhill. This Policy Brief is part of a Brookings Institution series entitled Welfare Reform and Beyond. This is issue #29 of this series.
To view:
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/es/wrb/publications/pb/pb29.pdf
This annual report is provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This report provides the policy community with comprehensive data on trends and indicators on America's children and youth.
To view:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/02trends/index.htm
The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 requires the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare annual reports to Congress on indicators and predictors of welfare dependence. The 2003 Indicators of Welfare Dependence, the sixth annual report, provides welfare dependence indicators through 2000, reflecting changes that have taken place since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in August 1996.
To view or download:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators03/index.htm
Authored by Deborah A. Orth and Malcolm L. Goggin. This research was conducted by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and is supported by a grant from the Administration for Children and Families.
To view or download:
Download Report
[233 KB]
This report summarizes a workshop entitled "Promoting Performance in TANF Programs" that took place on July 29-31, 2003 and was sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA). The workshop focused on performance and performance considerations in the TANF program.
To view or download:
Download Report
[208 KB]
Authored by Nancy Wemmerus, Carole Kuhns, and Renee Loeffler. This report describes the
status of over 1,000 Virginia families 18 months after their TANF cases closed because of a time limit. It finds that nearly all parents worked after leaving TANF, with average hours, hourly wages, and total earnings increasing over time. Families also decreased their use of non-cash
assistance--such as Food Stamps, Medicaid, and child care subsidies. As of November 2002, 15 percent of the families had returned to TANF.
To view or download:
www.mathematica-mpr.com/
This report by Urban Institute summarizes the results from eleven studies of former welfare recipients.
To view or download:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/leavers99/synthesis01/index.htm
ASPE has published its 2000 report on the outcomes of welfare reform to the Congressional Appropriations Committees.
To view:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/welf-ref-outcomes00/index.htm
This study of Utah's long-term welfare families represents a commitment by the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS) to understand and document the situations of families as they reach the mandatory three-year lifetime limit for receipt of cash assistance. This study reflects transitions at both societal and individual levels. The long-term welfare recipients described were familiar with, and often dependent on, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Their experiences adjusting to TANF are in some ways unique to their cohort.
To view:
http://www.socwk.utah.edu/sri/publications.html
The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network conducted a national needs assessment with all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico and documented the results in a report called "Progress and Promise of TANF Implementation." As its name suggests, the report highlights the challenges and successes of states' implementation of their TANF program. In addition to identifying the challenges faced by states, this report also highlights a variety of emerging innovations taking place throughout the country as states implement their welfare reform agendas.
To view or download:
Progress and Promise of TANF Implementation
[1.7 MB]
Authored by Irma Perez-Johnson, Jacqueline Kauff, and Alan Hershey. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. research report focuses on the Support Has A Rewarding Effect (SHARE) initiative operated with Welfare-to-Work grant support in the state of Washington. SHARE offers three options to noncustodial parents whose minor dependent children were receiving TANF and who were behind on their support obligations: (1) start paying support; (2) enroll in a Welfare-to-Work program; or (3) face possible incarceration. The evaluation study found that noncustodial parents are a hard-to-reach population; slightly fewer than half of those referred ever learned about SHARE. However, referred parents worked more, earned more, and paid more child support after referral to SHARE than before. The researchers conclude that SHARE probably contributed to observed increases in employment, earnings, and child support payments.
To view:
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/
Authored by Demetra Smith Nightingale, Carolyn Taylor O'Brien, Michael Egner, Nancy
Pindus, and John Trutko. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. research report examines local Welfare-to-Work (WtW) evaluation sites nearing the end of the WtW grant period. The researchers found that administrators were quite positive about the WtW program with respect to improving the interaction between WIA and TANF agencies, increasing local program capacity to serve welfare recipients and noncustodial parents in some sites, and offering opportunities for innovative programming.
To view:
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/
Authored by Thomas M. Fraker, Dan M. Levy, Robert B. Olsen, and Rita A. Stapulonis. This Mathematica Policy Research Inc. Report to Congress Presents findings from the outcomes
analysis component of the Welfare-to-Work evaluation describing characteristics and experiences of enrollees in 11 sites. The report finds that enrollees were more likely to receive employment preparation services than skill enhancement services; most were employed during the year after they entered WtW, but employment tended to be unstable; and those employed typically worked a lot of hours for low wages and few fringe benefits. In addition, poverty was high one year after program entry, but it was lower among those who were employed.
To view:
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/welworkentry.pdf
This study was prepared for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Family and Children, by Abt Associates, Inc. and the Urban Institute.
To view:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/indiana5year/ind_5title.html
This report sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) uses survey and administrative data to examine the personal characteristics and situations, potential challenges for employment, compensating strengths and resources, and employment outcomes of TANF recipients in Illinois.
To view:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/TANF-IL-emp03/index.htm
This study, sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), uses public records data to examine rates of marriage and divorce for two-parent families in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP). An earlier evaluation of the pilot MFIP found that two-parent recipient families assigned to MFIP were 40 percent more likely to be married at the three-year follow-up point than two-parent families assigned to AFDC.
To view:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/MFIP-2-parent03/index.htm
Efforts to replicate the experience of the Center for Employment Training
(CET) in San Jose, California -- a uniquely successful program that helped
at-risk youth develop skills needed to compete in today's labor market --
showed mixed results. This examination of 12 replication sites after
two-and-a-half years found that only four sites that implemented the CET
model with high fidelity to the original program increased youths'
participation in employment and training activities, leading to fairly large
increases in the receipt of training credentials. The study found that CET
worked best for young women enrolled at the high-fidelity sites, where
participation resulted in a substantial increase in the number who worked
during the follow-up period and a large increase in the number who were
still working at the two-and-a-half year point. The lack of positive impacts
for young males continues a disappointing pattern for disadvantaged men
whose barriers to acquiring training that would help them to move into
better jobs have yet to be addressed successfully by any employment
programs.
To view or download:
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2003/343/overview.html
Authored by Deanna T. Schexnayder, Daniel G. Schroeder, Jerome A. Olson, and Hyunsub Kum. This research was conducted as part of the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. This report studies the net impacts of the Achieving Change for Texans (ACT) demonstration from its inception in June 1996 through September 2001. The researchers measure impacts of State time limits and the Texas personal responsibility agreement on welfare dynamics, client self-sufficiency, participation in workforce development programs, and several family and child indicators.
To view or download:
http://www.utexas.edu/research/cshr/pubs/actfinalimpact.pdf
Authored by Deanna T. Schexnayder. This research was conducted as part of the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. This report summarizes findings from the evaluation of the Achieving Change for Texas (ACT) demonstration, and draws conclusions and policy implications for welfare policy development in the post-waiver time period.
To view or download:
http://www.utexas.edu/research/cshr/pubs/actfinalsummary.pdf
This recently completed study by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. focuses on how newly employed welfare recipients in the Pittsburgh area are doing under the revised welfare rules. Funded by the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Administration for Children and Families, this report looks at the voluntary GAPS program, which is designed to help bridge the gap between dependence on welfare and employment and self-sufficiency. The GAPS report, issue brief, and press release has been posted to the MPR web site.
To view:
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Press%20Releases/GAPS2ndreprel.htm
A pilot welfare reform project in Florida, launched more than two years before the landmark 1996 federal welfare law, has provided some of the first hard evidence about the imposition of time limits on receipt of cash welfare assistance. This is the final report of a six-year study conducted by MDRC that concluded that the Florida program increased employment and substantially reduced long-term welfare receipt, and did not find evidence that the program caused severe hardships. But the study also notes that the pilot operated under very favorable circumstances and cautions that time limits might produce different effects elsewhere.
To view:
http://www.mdrc.org/welfare_reform.htm
The Parents’ Fair Share (PFS) Demonstration, run from 1994 to 1996, was aimed at increasing the ability of these fathers to attain well-paying jobs, to increase their child support payments, and to increase their involvement in parenting in other ways. These reports - one examining the effectiveness of the PFS approach at increasing fathers’ financial and nonfinancial involvement with their children and the other examining the effectiveness of the PFS approach at increasing fathers’ employment and earnings - provide some important insights into policies aimed at this key group.
To view:
http://www.mdrc.org/welfare_reform.htm
This MDRC report describes the results of the Los Angeles program’s notable transformation from an earlier one focused heavily on remedial education into one that stresses rapid job placement and indicates that the changes have largely paid off. The gains are among the largest ever found in studies of full-scale welfare-to-work programs in the nation’s biggest cities - Los Angeles County being home to more welfare recipients (about 600,000) than any state except California and New York.
To view:
http://www.mdrc.org/welfare_reform.htm
Updated on July 20, 2004 by webmaster@calib.com