HIGHLIGHTS
- There is a need for more evidence-based reemployment service strategies.
- We developed evidence standards options, evidence-building approaches, and evaluation technical assistance
- The result is more evaluations across the nation to produce evidence of effective interventions
The Challenge
To improve the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program’s success in helping Unemployment Insurance claimants return to work more quickly, Congress introduced requirements that RESEA programs be supported by evidence of effectiveness. To satisfy that requirement, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) must set standards for intervention effectiveness and support state efforts to conduct evaluations that can produce high quality evidence of effectiveness and support program improvement.
The Approach
The project consists of several tasks. We scanned intervention rating approaches used elsewhere and developed options for synthesizing evidence to rate RESEA intervention effectiveness. We reviewed available evidence and conducted an implementation study of states’ current RESEA programs to help identify research gaps. We developed options for building evidence to fill those gaps. Finally, we are developing a large suite of general evaluation technical assistance (TA) products (e.g., webinars, a toolkit) and are providing customized one-on-one TA to states.
The Results
DOL published evidence standards based on options that we presented. The more than a dozen (and counting) technical assistance webinars that we have conducted have been attended, in total, by thousands of state and local staff members. According to the RESEA Plans that states submit to DOL, nearly all states are developing or implementing plans to conduct evaluations.
Related Publications:
- Tracking Changes in Program Implementation: Findings from Multiple Rounds of the RESEA Implementation Survey (Brief, December 2023)
- Evidence Building at the U.S. Department of Labor: Lessons From Delivering RESEA Evaluation Technical Assistance (Brief, September 2023)
- RESEA Program Strategies: State and Local Implementation (Final Report, June 2022)
- Serving Unemployment Assistance Claimants During a Public Health Crisis: The RESEA Program and the COVID-19 Pandemic (Issue Brief, June 2022)
- Reemployment Services Evidence: A Collection of Briefs on RESEA Program Components (Compendium, June 2022)
- Options for Building Evidence on RESEA Programs (Final Report, June 2022)
Related Project:
Technical Assistance Resources:
- RESEA Evaluation and Evidence Resources
- RESEA Evaluation Toolkit: Key Elements for State RESEA Programs
- Evidence Coffee Break Series Videos
- RESEA Evidence-Building Week—A Celebration and Sharing of States’ RESEA Evaluation and Evidence-Building Efforts
Abt Global and its partners co-sponsored a series of virtual panel sessions with DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). The series featured presentations and moderated discussions among states, DOL’s Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI), Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR), CEO, and DOL’s contractors with the RESEA Evaluation Technical Assistance (EvalTA) Team.