Repeated and Combined Participation in Workforce, Education and Social Program Services: Preliminary Evidence from Maryland Administrative Data Sources

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

One justification for extended retention of program administrative data is a resulting capability to study whether and how often repeated, concurrent and sequential appearances are found in multiple program transaction records. The expected return-on-investment from extended retention of administrative data rises when coverage of multiple programmatic interventions is consolidated in an integrated data system. This report is based on a preliminary exploration of linked historical administrative data files containing recorded instances of individual participation in defined education, workforce and social service programs. Our results to date should be treated as illustrative of decision-relevant insights that future refinements can produce. To explore the incidence of repeated, concurrent and sequential participation in more than one government program we accessed two workforce, threepublic education, and two social services administrative data files. We document that many individuals do engage in multiple workforce, education and social services program activities, and in repeated participation within each of the program types. There are many reasons for sustained interest in reliable measurement of repeated and combined program engagements. Some combinations and sequences are looked upon favorably, while others are viewed with some concern. Care should be exercised to avoid hasty conclusions about the benefits and costs that can be assigned to particular combinations of program engagements. Our next steps will include renewed attention to dynamic person identification and program engagement methodologies, while continuing the design and implementation of our study of up to 27 years of multiple program engagements by 1984 credit-course enrollees in Maryland’s public community colleges.