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 interventions 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 interventions that used education as an approach to providing services to clients and the interventions’ 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 the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse.
Primary Research Questions
- What does the evidence say about education interventions for people with low incomes?
- Do education interventions increase earnings, employment, education or training, and do they reduce the receipt of public benefits?
- What are the most effective education interventions?
Purpose
This Evidence Snapshot describes the effectiveness of programs that were identified by the Pathways Clearinghouse 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 interventions had the largest effects on education and training attainment. In particular, for intervention participants—as compared with comparison groups that did not receive intervention services:
- Short-term annual earnings increased by $23, and long-term annual earnings increased by $102, on average, across the 12 education interventions 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 interventions 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 interventions for which this outcome was examined.
- Education and training attainment increased by six percentage points, on average, across the eight education interventions for which these outcomes were measured.
- Six education interventions improved more than one type of outcome domain.
Methods
The Pathways Clearinghouse assigned an effectiveness rating to each intervention in each of four outcome domains: earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and education and training. The rating describes the extent of support that the intervention is likely to produce favorable results in that domain if faithfully replicated with a similar population.
For this snapshot, the Pathways Clearinghouse calculated the average impact for each domain by averaging impacts within moderate- and high-quality studies, then within interventions (because there may be multiple studies on a single intervention), and then across education interventions. 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 interventions.
This snapshot describes the interventions using education as a primary service that had positive impacts on earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and/or education and training, and highlights interventions 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.
