Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Low-income parents in the United States have markedly low levels of education. Over half of parents with children under three in the bottom 40% of the income distribution have no more than a high school degree (Addy, Engelhardt, & Skinner, 2013). As a result, many low-income parents struggle to meet the demands of the 21st century global economy as technological innovation increasingly requires advanced degrees to attain a family-supporting wage (Chase-Lansdale & Brooks-Gunn, 2014).

Most education and workforce training programs for low-income parents were implemented several decades ago and were mostly ineffective (e.g., New Chance, Teen Parent Demonstration, and LEAP; Granger et al., 2006). There has been moderate success of more recent job training programs for low-income adults. However, most adult training programs do not address the many barriers parents face, including lack of social support, unpredictable schedules, and inadequate access to reliable and high quality child care.

Two-generation human capital programs have the opposite view of parents and intentionally and strategically link workforce training for parents with early childhood education programs for children. Early childhood education programs may provide the ideal location for recruiting and supporting parents by offering training directly “where the children are.” In addition, two-generation programs harness parents’ motivation on behalf of their children to advance parents’ own skills and education.

The current study tests the effects on parents of CareerAdvance^®, a two-generation intervention that pairs a training program in the healthcare sector for parents with Head Start services for children. The Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa), a large Head Start agency, developed and launched CareerAdvance^® to offer healthcare training program designed for the parents of Head Start children. CareerAdvance^® also offers many supportive services, including stackable training; coaching support, peer partner meetings, and wrap around childcare.

Our study uses quasi-experimental methods to estimate the average treatment effect of CareerAdvance^® combined with Head Start on: parent education, employment, income, psychological wellbeing, and child attendance one year after the program began. Our sample includes 142 CareerAdvance^® participants and a matched control group (n=112) who received Head Start services alone. The matched comparison group was selected using propensity score matching based on parents’ motivation to improve their own education and observable characteristics.

We find that CareerAdvance^® participation increases rates of certification by 61 percentage points one year after program entry (ES=.61, SE=.04, p<.01).. In addition, CareerAdvance^® participation increases rates of employment in the healthcare sector by 18 percentage points (ES=.18, SE=.06, p<.01). Parents in CareerAdvance^® switched from full-to part time employment (ES=.13, SE=.05, p<.05), but not from not employed to full time (ES=-.08, SE=.06, ns). There was a negative effect on parent earnings (ES=-2,079, SE=1201, p<.10) but this may have been offset by the average incentives parents earned through the CareerAdvance^® program ($2305 on average). Parents also had increased commitment to work and career, self-efficacy and optimism, and improved child attendance but did not experience increased levels of stress. Results suggest the positive effects of pairing workforce training for parents with Head Start programs.