Introduction
The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse defines education as services to support educational attainment, such as GED support, adult basic education, or postsecondary education. Education programs typically combine education with case management and other services that help people identify, apply to, or complete training for job opportunities that make use of their new educational abilities or credentials. This Evidence Snapshot summarizes what rigorous research tells us about 12 programs that used education as an approach to providing services to clients and the programs’ impacts on earnings, employment, the receipt of public benefits, and education and training. The data come from 12 high- or moderate-quality studies that were conducted between 1991 and 2016, were published through May 2022, and were reviewed by Pathways to Work.
Primary Research Questions
- What does the evidence say about education programs for people with low incomes?
- Do education programs increase earnings, employment, education or training, and do they reduce the receipt of public benefits?
- What are the most effective education programs?
Purpose
This Evidence Snapshot describes the effectiveness of programs that were identified by Pathways to Work as using education as their primary service. It summarizes what we know about these programs and their impacts so Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other program administrators, policymakers, researchers, and the general public can apply the evidence to their context and the questions that matter to them.
Key Findings and Highlights
On average, education programs had the largest effects on education and training attainment. In particular, for program participants—as compared with comparison groups that did not receive program services:
- Short-term annual earnings increased by $23, and long-term annual earnings increased by $102, on average, across the 12 education programs for which these outcomes were examined.
- Short-term employment increased by two percentage points and long-term employment increased by one percentage point, on average, across the nine education programs for which these outcomes were examined.
- The proportion of people receiving public benefits decreased by two percentage points in the short term and one percentage point in the long term, on average, across the nine education programs for which this outcome was examined.
- Education and training attainment increased by six percentage points, on average, across the eight education programs for which these outcomes were measured.
- Six education programs improved more than one type of outcome domain.
Methods
Pathways to Work assigned an effectiveness rating to each program in each of four outcome domains: earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and education and training. The rating describes the extent of support that the program is likely to produce favorable results in that domain if faithfully replicated with a similar population.
For this snapshot, Pathways to Work calculated the average impact for each domain by averaging impacts within moderate- and high-quality studies, then within programs (because there may be multiple studies on a single program), and then across education programs. The average includes all studies, not just those with a supported rating or statistically significant findings, because these studies still provide useful evidence in considering the overall effectiveness of education programs.
This snapshot describes the programs using education as a primary service that had positive impacts on earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and/or education and training, and highlights programs that were effective in multiple outcome domains.
Citation
Hartog, Jacob, and Sarah Wissel (2024). Evidence Snapshot: Education, OPRE Report #2024-312, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
