Although random assignment is generally the preferred methodology in impact evaluations, it raises numerous ethical concerns, some of which are addressed by securing participants' informed consent. However, there has been little investigation of how consent is obtained in social experiments and the amount of information that can be conveyed--and…

A 5-year study of the Saturation Work Initiative Model (2290 participants, 2260 controls), which requires welfare recipients to work, showed that it increased employment and reduced welfare payments. However, income from increased employment did not offset the loss in welfare income. (SK)

Subsidized employment had substantial and long-lived effects on earnings and welfare benefits in a study of more than 9,000 welfare recipients 3 years after program entry. Although not always cost effective for taxpayers, subsidized employment had positive net benefits for participants and society. (SK)

This project reviewed and critiqued educational and employment programs to assist exoffenders' reentry to the community. Chief criticisms include lack of followup studies; lack of relevance to life "outside"; and inaccurate, inconsistent, and unreliable research. (SK)

Employment and training in solar installation work is provided by fifteen Solar Utilization/Economic Development and Employment (SUEDE) demonstration projects funded by the United States Departments of Labor and Energy and the Community Services Administration. The article describes the projects and the types of work. (MF)

The "Open Road" project is a three-year supported employment program for adults with severe mental handicap in Dublin, Ireland. This paper describes the program's development of integrated day services; job development; program participants; and issues in program effectiveness such as family concerns, staff development, organizational…

Massachusetts' Employment and Training (ET) Choices Program--a work-incentive demonstration--assumes that recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) would choose work over welfare if given genuine opportunities for economic improvement. Models for estimating caseload without the ET Program indicate that the program had only…

Data collected from a 2-round Delphi procedure involving model transition program directors validated the relative importance of a list of 22 employment outcomes and 65 related activities in the transition of individuals with disabilities from school to employment. Educational agencies and service providers can use the list to target areas that…

Supported work is an employment program operated primarily by locally based nonprofit corporations that serve as the temporary employer for people who have traditionally had great difficulty in getting or holding a job. This article describes program operations, target groups, funding sources, and program impact research. (Author/SJL)

The successful transition of developmentally disabled persons from school to employment, often supported employment, involves changing the attitudes of both families and businesses. Contacts on state committees on employment of the handicapped are listed as are seven model supported work and school to work transition programs. (DB)

Youthwork, Incorporated, was created by the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA) to keep track of youth employment and training programs. Privately-owned Youthwork administers federal demonstration grants across the country to help provide job guidance, work experience credit, private sector involvement, and…

This first in a series highlighting Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 (YEDPA) programs describes a guidance and placement program in Williamson County, Tennessee, to ease students' transition from school to work through career counseling, job training at Yates Vocational Center, job placement, and community liaison services.…

The Vocational Education to Work model is a system of communication and support between vocational and special educators, designed to train students with disabilities in mainstreamed vocational education. The model's four sequential components include active recruitment, guided placement, continuing support, and job placement followup.…

The results of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) project at 10 Job Corps centers nationwide with 5,379 trainees indicate that effects of CAI after about 60 hours of classroom instruction are small and achievement gains are not significantly different from those of students taught conventionally. CAI may help motivate students. (SLD)

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);…