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Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review: Standards and Methods
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Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review: Standards and Methods

Published: May 30, 2015
Publisher: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
Human Services Employment Criminal Justice Training and Re-employment Family Support TANF and Employment Issues Justice Diversion and Expungement Health and Well-Being Juvenile Justice Prevention Recidivism Reentry System Reform Policy Analysis

Clients

OPRE Logo

Authors

Annalisa Mastri

Emily Sama-Miller

Andrew Clarkwest

Key Findings

The review process included four major activities:

  1. Conducting a systematic, broad literature search to identify relevant studies
  2. Screening studies to determine whether they met the criteria for being included in the review
  3. Assessing the strength of evidence in the studies
  4. Extracting data and presenting studies' key findings to the review's audiences

The Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review systematically reviewed the literature on the effectiveness of employment and training programs for low-income adults. Mathematica conducted the review for the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The purpose of the review was:

To provide practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the general public with a transparent and systematic assessment of the research evidence for effectiveness of programs designed to improve the employment-related outcomes of low-income adults.

This report outlines the standards and methods that governed the review, under four main activities: searching the literature, screening studies for eligibility, assessing each study’s strength of evidence, and extracting information reported in the studies.

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