Workforce Development

EXAMPLES OF THE WORK WE'VE DONE

Research, Evaluation, and Analysis

JBS has conducted research and professional program evaluations for nearly 25 years. Our staff has a well-earned reputation for reaching ethnically, economically, and socially isolated groups. We obtain meaningful data with methodologically robust qualitative and quantitative studies that withstand critical review, and we achieve this under rigorous deadlines, budget limits, and contracting standards. Our experience includes market research, needs assessment, and statistical modeling.

Labor Market Study for Economic Development
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Aguirre was hired to conduct a 26-country labor market study in Eurasia and Eastern Europe using public access data to assess employment and wage trends. Working closely with local labor market experts and consultants, Aguirre collected in-country data and compiled a harmonized data set of indicators for the 1991–2003 period.

• Collected in-country data in 26 countries.
  
• Collaborated closely with local labor market experts.
  
• Results: Aguirre’s analysis of the data was presented in a USAID paper Social Issues Critical for Sustainability of Reform: Labor Markets.
  
• Results: These findings have assisted USAID in the development of an analytical agenda for Eastern Europe and Eurasia as well as overseas Mission requests for labor market information.

National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS)
U.S. Department of Labor
Aguirre was hired to design and conduct the first national survey of agricultural workers in 1990 and continues to do so today. To date, Aguirre has interviewed more than 40,000 farm workers in 35 States collecting data in Spanish and 9 other languages. NAWS is the only national information source on the demographic characteristics and health, employment, and living conditions of hired crop workers.

• Since 1990, have surveyed more than 40,000 highly mobile, low-literacy, limited-English farm workers.
  
• Pioneered ethnographic survey techniques and an innovative tracking system resulting in re-interview rates of 75–85 percent.
  
• Results: Aguirre provided the first accurate profile of employment patterns and occupational health conditions of difficult-to-survey seasonal farm workers.
  
• Results: Survey data were used by a variety of Federal agencies for public policy, planning, and program development.

National Evaluation of AmeriCorps Impacts
Corporation for National and Community Services (CNCS)
CNCS contracted with Aguirre to conduct a 3-year evaluation study of the impacts of AmeriCorps on the Nation’s communities and the lives of volunteers who serve in the AmeriCorps program. The evaluation examined what makes effective programs—how projects with widely diverging objectives, organizational strategies, and local partnerships succeed in combining the dual strands of community service and personal development to accomplish their objectives.

• Designed a study to capture the diversity of the more than 700 AmeriCorps projects.
  
• Through a volunteer impact assessment examined how Corps members’ career experience, educational attachment, and civic involvement may have benefited in comparison with a control group of youth and young adults.
  
• Results: The community impact assessment from the evaluation generated detailed costs and benefits analyses to estimate the AmeriCorps program’s return on the national service investment.
  
• Results: CNCS has extensively used findings from this evaluation to communicate the benefits of AmeriCorps in reports to the White House and to Congress.

National English Literacy Demonstration Project for Adults of Limited English
U.S. Department of Education (ED)
ED hired Aguirre to conduct cognitive interviews and focus groups in nine adult English as a Second Language (ESL) literacy program sites across the United States. The project included a nomination process, which required State directors, researchers, and program administrators to nominate innovative programs in adult ESL literacy. Aguirre published the findings in Bringing Literacy to Life: Issues and Options in Adult ESL Literacy, a handbook that includes innovative program models, tips for teachers, and curriculum modules.

• Conducted interviews and focus groups in nine adult ESL literacy programs across the United States.
  
• Collaborated closely with State directors, teachers, and program administrators.
  
• Results: Aguirre published findings in a user-friendly handbook of innovative program models and tips for teachers.