Four African-American women, participants in PROBE (Potential Reentry Opportunities in Business and Education), a program to prepare low-income women in Pennsylvania for jobs through computer and communications skills training, were interviewed about their attitudes toward learning. The four were single-parent welfare recipients in their late 20s…

This paper on assessment in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Program for welfare recipients is intended to help administrators of JOBS programs weigh the possible benefits and drawbacks of the assessment choices they must make. Chapter 1 explains why assessment matters to JOBS administrators. Chapter 2 suggests a conceptual framework…

Working diligently, living frugally, and restraining one's lusts and appetites within defensible boundaries have often been classified as middle class values. A growing concern of the U.S. public is the dysfunctional conduct of many of those dependent upon its support. However, society must demonstrate persuasively that rectitude pays. Society…

An evaluation of California's statewide Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program was based mainly on a sample of more than 2,500 welfare recipients in five of the six counties included in the ongoing evaluation. The evaluation drew on previously completed analyses and new data based on a survey of these recipients and the results of a…

This monograph examines adult education issues in Minnesota, such as the proper role of the Federal Government, institutions of higher education, the business sector, the non-profit sector, labor unions, the public schools and community education, teachers, public school administrators, and learners in the fight against adult illiteracy in the…

Concerned with the increasing feminization of poverty, the Rockefeller Foundation launched in 1982 a $12 million welfare-to-work research and demonstration project, presently midway into a 5-year evaluation. The Minority Female Single Parent Demonstration project involved four community-based organizations: Atlanta Urban League (Georgia);…

Testimony from a congressional hearing on the dual role women play as wage earners and as mothers is presented. Other focuses of the hearing include what is being done and what needs to be done by the public and private sectors to facilitate the entry of women into a broad range of occupations, including higher paid nontraditional areas.…

The Confidence Clinic at Clackamas Community College was designed to help women on welfare to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency. The need for such a program was evidenced by the fact that 11% of the county's population were women heads of households who had below median family incomes, and by the apparent increase of such situations. The…

THE AIDES FOR ADULT EDUCATION WORKSHOP (FEBRUARY 10-MAY 20, 1967) WAS HELD IN CLEVELAND, OHIO BY CLEVELAND COLLEGE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM TO DEVELOP BETTER CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION AND A MORE INTENSIVE LEARNING SITUATION FOR DISADVANTAGED ADULT STUDENTS. TWENTY WELFARE RECIPIENTS, ALMOST ALL NEGRO WOMEN, WERE SELECTED FOR AIDE TRAINING ON THE…

The study determined the relation between specific social factors and situational conditions of poverty and non-poverty heads of households and their orientation toward work. The major hypotheses tested was that respondents affected more by adverse social factors and situational conditions will develop less positive work orientations. Data were…

A project (MAPAR), designed specifically to explore and develop an educational program which will demonstrate effective methods for teaching the educationally disadvantaged adult, is discussed. The approach utilized by this project is that of an individualized learning center which incorporates paraprofessional teacher, self-instructional learning…

The DIPOV Index as an indicator of "the state of the child" in various ecological settings is examined in a study based on extensive interviews with mothers or mother-surrogates of children aged 1 to 10. Several hundred households were sampled in two upstate New York counties with strongly contrasting DIPOV Indices. Developed as an…

WorkFirst is Washington State's welfare-to-work program. The program's mission is to help citizens get "a job, a better job, a better life." Inaugurated in 1996, it is based on the 1996 federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) welfare reform legislation. As part of this new program, the community and technical college system…

Focusing on the influence of impoverished environments on child outcomes, this Kids Count report examines trends in the well-being of Iowa children. The first section of the report presents an overview essay detailing the presence and location of high risk and moderate risk census tracts in Iowa, based on information from the 2000 Census using…

A study explored which nonexperimental comparison group methods provide the most accurate estimates of the impacts of mandatory welfare-to-work programs and whether the best methods work well enough to substitute for random assignment experiments. Findings were compared for nonexperimental comparison groups and statistical adjustment procedures…