Summative Evaluation, Formative Evaluation, and Tactical Research

Abstract

Cindy Johnson, a county employment and training counselor, sits and waits for her 19 workshop participants to show up at a dingy conference room, where the wall clock always reads 5:20. Finally, three people trudge in. Jacqueline Nash, 34, hasn't worked since 1985. Scott Sandrow, a 19-year-old father, can boast a job history of only six weeks of flipping burgers before being fired. John Jordan, a 45-year-old laborer with two school-age children, has been out of work nearly a year. Ms. Johnson passes around purple file folders containing job-hunting tips and forms to be completed. 'I can't read,' blurts out Mr. Jordan. The counselor carefully explains the program's sole requirement: Apply for two dozen jobs in the next 60 days, or risk losing your food stamps. Ten of the job "contacts " must be in person. Their meeting that morning counts as one job contact, Ms. Johnson adds. If they walk across the hall to the state's employment bureau, that will count as another contact. Shops across the street are another quick stop. "You just have to get through this, " she urges. The trainees leave. Ms. Nash forgets her purple folder. This is the government's definition of "job training. "Under a 1985 law, Congress created a training program especially for people on food stamps, ostensibly to get them into jobs and reduce their need for government aid.