Federal workforce training programs need to examine outcomes by race and ethnicity to measure their effectiveness in addressing historic disparities, a new report co-authored by Public Policy Associate’s Colleen Graber concludes.
The report by the Joint Commission for Political and Economic Studies, “Improving Training Evaluation Data to Brighten the Future of Black Workers,” examined 80 career pathway training programs. Researchers found that evaluation results are rarely disaggregated by race and ethnicity. Of the 80 program evaluations, only 27 tracked participants by race. Of those, only 6 reported outcomes by race, and only four of the six found positive outcomes for Black participants. You can read the report here.
Without analyzing the data by race and ethnicity, policymakers don’t know if one group is succeeding while another is left behind.
“Every worker should be able to maximize their potential,” said Ms. Graber, who is PPA’s Chief Operating Officer. “Black workers’ success in accessing good-paying jobs is critical to our overall long-term economic health as a nation as well as to that of their families.”
Workforce development has been a long-term focus of PPA, which has evaluated work-readiness and occupational training programs across the country for over three decades. Wherever feasible, PPA researchers disaggregate data by race to better understand the overall context and results of a program.
For more information about PPA’s workforce development work, contact Colleen Graber at cgraber@publicpolicy.com.