In December, the Ray Marshall Center promoted Greg Cumpton to Associate Director. Greg works closely with local school districts on the Central Texas Student Futures Project, an ongoing look at life after high school for graduating seniors. He also leads research on the National Center for Health Statistics Data Linkage project and is involved with several other projects here at the Center. Our Director, Dr. Heath Prince, noted:
" I am happy to announce that Greg Cumpton has accepted the Associate Director position at the Ray Marshall Center. As you may know, Greg has been on staff at the RMC for 10 years, during which time he has consistently conducted exemplary work, has greatly assisted in establishing the RMC's reputation for rigorous research in the education arena, and has, in recent years, proven himself equally conversant in the workforce development field. More than this, though, Greg has demonstrated a rare quality: he can manage and mentor at the same time, and can do so in a way that contributes to an esprit de corps that is so highly valued by staff and management. We are lucky to have him, and grateful that he has taken on this new role. "
Please join us in congratulating Greg on his latest achievement!
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At the end of February, the Center said their goodbyes to longtime researcher
Tara Smith. Tara came to the Center in 2005 and has been a vital part of the team during her tenure here. She led research on the workforce development investments for
Travis County project, the two-generation effects from participation in
Capital IDEA, and the TAACCCT evaluation at
Tulsa Community College. She also played an instrumental role in the
Workforce Data Quality Initiative, the implementation study of the CareerAdvance? program in
Tulsa, and with our ongoing two-generation strategy
initiative funded by the Foundation for Children Development.
Tara leaves her post at the Center to join the staff at Jobs for the Future as a Senior Project Manager. Her work will include assisting community colleges in developing and implementing integrated pathways, including a small group of innovative community colleges developing competency based instructional approaches to support underprepared adult learners. She will also provide and manage the delivery of technical assistance and coaching to a subset of workforce boards that are Workforce Innovation Fund grantees.
We hate to see her go, but we wish her the best of luck in her new adventure!
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On April 7, RMC Research Scientist Dr. Christopher King joined other Ascend Fellows and leading experts to discuss national programs, policies, and promising research helping children, parents, and families achieve educational success and economic security. The release also included best practices for influencing local, state, and federal two-generation policies as well as building beneficial partnerships in the public and private two-generation fields. A live recording of the event can be viewed here and updates can be found at our LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.
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RMC Researcher, Ashweeta Patnaik, attended the 5th annual
SXSWedu conference held in Austin from March 9-12. This four-day event fosters innovation in learning by hosting a diverse and energetic community of stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds in education including teachers, administrators, university professors and business and policy leaders. This year, many of the sessions in the 'Continuing Education & Workforce Development' and 'Policy and Funding' strands focused on career pathways and linking education to employment. Ms. Patnaik also attended sessions focused on college access at the
Getting to Graduation: Re-Designing Higher Education for Student Success summit hosted by
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Heath Prince and Chris King co-authored a set of State Workforce and Education Alignment Project (SWEAP) papers just issued by the National Skills Coalition. The two reports present new tools that provide policy makers the information they need to improve the effectiveness of states' workforce and education programs to create career pathways for people with a diversity of needs. They also explain how states can create web-based and interactive dashboards to evaluate their ability to help residents get jobs requiring postsecondary training while providing employers with skilled workers. The two papers can be found below.
Using Pathway Evaluators for State Workforce Planning
Using Dashboards for State Workforce Planning
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The March 9, 2015 issue of the Employment & Training Reporter featured Heath Prince and Chris King's work on the State Workforce and Education Alignment Project (SWEAP) for the National Skills Coalition. Their paper, "Using Pathway Evaluators for State Workforce Planning," which was written with NSC co-authors Bryan Wilson and Brooke DeRenzis, offers a step-by-step process for evaluating the effectiveness of career pathways. A courtesy reprint from MII Publications can be read here:
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The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University has released a summary highlighting the discussions from the panel "Aligning Employers and Workforce Development Strategies"
from last October's
Transforming US Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century
workforce development conference (see original news post
here
). The summary can be found
here
. Above, you can watch the Heldrich Center's interview with Dr. King in which he provides recommendations on what should be done to address workforce challenges in the US. It can also be viewed
here
.
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