This brief highlights examples of career pathway models funded by TAACCCT [Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training] that were designed for adult students who require accelerated timelines because they are often under pressure to enter or reenter the workforce quickly to support their families. In each of the cases chosen,…

This report shows how state leaders are using technological advances to improve the use of data in five critical areas: (1) Helping economic and workforce developers, businesses, and colleges to reduce the high costs resulting from uninformed education and workforce decisions; (2) Assisting college leaders in making program-related decisions that…

Every two years, the Educator Licensing Division of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is tasked with producing a report on the supply and demand of teachers. By statute, that report must contain data collected by surveying Minnesota public school districts, charter schools, and teacher preparation institutions (Minnesota Statute 127A.05,…

The budget for the U.S. Department of Labor for Fiscal Year 2010 includes a total of $45 million to support and study transitional jobs. This paper describes the origins of the transitional jobs models that are operating today, reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach and other subsidized employment models, and offers some…

Describes the Work Equity Project (WEP) in Minnesota, a demonstration project funded by the Employment and Training Administration to place welfare recipients in training and employment programs leading to private, nonsubsidized jobs. WEP offices consolidate social service delivery systems otherwise spread among a number of agencies. (MF)

This paper provides an overview of some of the issues involved in developing and implementing vocational education effectiveness indicators and systems. The paper first discusses educational effectiveness indicator systems--with the emphasis on "systems" in contrast to individual effectiveness indicators taken alone--and stresses the…

A study examined whether the Minnesota State Board of Vocational Education has adequately implemented recommendations made in a 1983 evaluation of postsecondary vocational education programs. It focused particularly on how the board and its management have responded to problems of low job placement rates and low student-teacher ratios in some…

This book examines welfare reform, occasioned by the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It is based on research in Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan that…

This document describes an exemplary project from October 1, 1970 through September 30, 1971 to expand vocational education to the youth and adults in rural Minnesota through the operation of vocational centers designed to serve all secondary schools in Roseau County and in South Central Minnesota. This was viewed as one project although conducted…

Minnesota and Wisconsin technical college personnel (25 presidents, 63 counselors, 23 placement officers, and 34 alternates) considered training-related labor market information most important in program maintenance decisions; advisory committee input for program modification decisions; employer input for adding programs; and cost for dropping…

The goals of the project described in this interim report were to: (1) develop a systematic manner for delivery of career education relative to environmental education, (2) develop a system to assist high school dropouts and other out-of-school youth in making career decisions, and (3) demonstrate the career education concept to other schools by…

A study examined postsecondary vocational education at Minnesota's area vocational-technical institutes (AVTIs). During the study, researchers evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of approximately 800 vocational programs offered by the AVTIs with respect to student and teacher ratios, program duplication, completion rates, placement rates,…

In 1991, followup studies of the employment and educational status of 1990-1991 occupational program graduates were conducted by the seven community colleges in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota: Anoka-Ramsey, Cambridge Center, Inver Hills, Lakewood, Minneapolis, North Hennepin, and Normandale. While the colleges used different questionnaire…

How can policy makers and the public judge whether proprietary schools are heroes or villains? A review of six studies on proprietaries and two studies conducted in Minnesota attempted to answer the question. Five of the six studies examined reported that proprietary schools students are more likely to complete a program than public school…

This study was commissioned to examine Minnesota's four public higher education systems to identify possible duplication and inefficiency in instructional programs. Study findings indicate that the two-year college systems offer a significant number of occupational programs with low student/teacher ratios, low graduate placement rates, or both.…