Retraining the Gulf Coast through Information Technology Pathways: Impact Evaluation Interim Report

The Aspen Institute in collaboration with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin is carrying out a high-quality, non-experimental (comparison cohort) impact analysis and implementation study to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the Gulf Coast IT Pathways Consortium with funding provided by the US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Program. The Consortium, which consists of nine community colleges in Mississippi and Louisiana, is tasked with addressing the challenges facing trade-impacted workers and meeting the high demand for IT workers in their regions. This report describes the Gulf Coast IT program participants from the first year of program implementation, which is considered to be the 2013-2014 academic year. In addition, the report provides an update on the Ray Marshall Center’s impact evaluation activities and provides an overview of data quality, gaps in data, and implications for the impact evaluation.