Building the Evaluation Capacity of State Workforce Systems

Building Evaluation Capacity for State Workforce System Programs: Technical Assistance Summary Brief for 2020. The 2020 EvalPLC involved six states in technical assistance activities to build and expand evaluations of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) adult and youth activities. This report summarizes their activities, strengths, and challenges related to key elements of evaluation; and describes insights and successes with action planning to conduct research and evaluation studies. The authors summarize short- and long-term takeaways and considerations for future EvalPLC TA efforts, including the use of longitudinal data to evaluate workforce training programs, opportunities for state teams to choose a capstone project (such as a research design or Evaluation Action Plan), and the establishing of cross-agency groups within states that focus on the planning and conducting of evaluation. 

Building Evaluation Capacity for State Workforce System Programs: Technical Assistance Summary Brief for 2021. The examination of the lessons learned from the implementation of the EvalPLC technical assistance activities continued in 2021 with a new cohort of state teams comprised of WIOA core partner agencies. Throughout the EvalPLC, state teams: 1) used the State Workforce Agency Evaluation Toolkit to self-assess evaluation readiness, design, and implementation strengths and challenges, 2) participated in five virtual workgroup meetings to build knowledge, facilitate peer learning, and support teams to develop future evaluation plans, 3) met with coaches assigned to support their improvement efforts, and 4) exchanged promising practices across states and engage with workforce system evaluation and research experts. The authors summarized short- and long-term takeaways and shared considerations, including establishing or replenishing a repository of workforce evaluation resources and encouraging greater diversity in team composition, e.g., representation from non-WIOA agencies such as human services or economic development. 

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• Posted by: Jon Gavazzi
• Posted in: Evaluation and Research Hub