Andrew Clarkwest

Andrew Clarkwest has more than 18 years of experience in workforce policy and evaluation design. He has held lead management and technical roles in many quantitative and mixed-methods studies, including multi-site random assignment evaluations, quasi-experimental impact evaluations, and descriptive studies. He develops evidence to meet the practical needs of program and policy audiences and makes complex research accessible. He has translated research insights through systematic evidence reviews, technical assistance, and easy-to-consume dissemination products.

Clarkwest directs a study for the Administration for Children and Families of how employment processes in the low-wage labor market create employment barriers for workers of color. The study will identify promising strategies to combat barriers. He also directs two projects for the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). The first is helping build high quality evidence on strategies to improve the reemployment outcomes of unemployment insurance claimants. The second is expanding USDOL’s evidence clearinghouse and helping make insights from evidence reviewed by that clearinghouse more usable for its audiences. Clarkwest just finished a study that generated evidence on which mid-level occupations tend to offer the largest wage growth prospects for new entrants and how those prospects differ by workers’ race and gender.

Before coming to Abt, Clarkwest’s professional experience included work in state government and philanthropy. He began his career as an analyst for the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Immediately before coming to Abt, he was a founding director of a DeBruce Foundation initiative to develop research insights and program strategies to broaden access to upward mobility and economic security. He also previously worked for seven years at Mathematica Policy Research, where he designed and implemented evaluations of interventions related to employment and training, couple relationships, and healthcare quality.  In addition, he held lead roles on several systematic evidence reviews.

Expertise:

• Workforce policy and labor markets
• Project leadership
• Design and implementation of causal and descriptive quantitative evaluations
• Employment disparities, opportunity, and equity
• Translation of research insights for practice and policy audiences

Key Projects:

• Project Director, Employment Processes as Barriers to Employment in the Lower-Wage Labor Market, ACF
• Project Director, Evaluation of the Skilled KC Initiative, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
• Project Director, Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research, USDOL
• Technical Study Lead, Study of Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions, Descriptive & Analytical Career Pathways Study, USDOL
• Director of Analysis, National Evaluation of the American Apprenticeship Initiative, USDOL

Publications:

• Clarkwest, Andrew, Tresa Kappil, Deena Schwartz et al. (2021). “Wage Growth Disparities by Gender and Race/Ethnicity Among Entrants to Mid-Level Occupations in the United States: Findings from the Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions Study.” Paper prepared for USDOL, Chief Evaluation Office. Abt Global, December 2021.
• Clarkwest, Andrew, Zachary Epstein, John Trutko, and Alex Trutko. “Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Program Integration with WIOA: Early Survey Findings.” Report submitted to USDOL, Chief Evaluation Office. Abt Global, November 2020.
• Klerman, Jacob Alex, Andrew Clarkwest, Charles Goldman, and John Trutko. “Evaluation Design Options Report: Veterans Employment and Training Services Research Study Design.” Report submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor, Chief Evaluation Office. Rockville, MD: Abt Global, December 2018.
• Clarkwest, Andrew, Alexandra Killewald, and Robert G. Wood. “Stepping Up or Stepping Back: Highly Disadvantaged Parents’ Responses to the Building Strong Families Program.” In The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth, edited by Orlando Patterson and Ethan Fosse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
• Wood, Robert G., S. McConnell, Q. Moore, Andrew Clarkwest, and J. Hsueh. “The Effects of Building Strong Families: A Healthy Marriage and Relationship Skills Education Program for Unmarried Parents.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 31, no. 2, spring 2012, pp. 228-252.