Basic Skills Training Program Research Articles

Applying ISD to a Social Problem: Systematic Development of a Driver Training Computer-Based Program

Traditionally, Instructional Systems Development (ISD) has been applied on large, primarily military training systems. Many skill-based training programs in the civilian world have followed the more traditional textbook, lecture, written-test model of the public educational system. In the meantime, after 70 years of public and private higher education over 6,000 young persons a year are killed in traffic crashes. It is well established that exposure to driver education does not correlate with either fewer crashes, or fewer traffic violations. This symposium reports on a three-year program that applied ISD techniques to the development of CD-ROM program for young drivers. The first paper, by Dr. David Willis of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, reports on the early needs analysis which identified a new approach to driving instruction as a potential intervention for young drivers. The second paper, by Larry Lonero of Northport Associates, describes the curriculum development effort which identified, among many, a set of specific learning objectives which were used to design the CD-ROM program described and demonstrated in the third paper, presented by Dr. Deborah Blank of Electronic Learning Facilitators, Inc. Finally, the fourth paper, by Dr. Donald Fisher of the University of Massachusetts, reports on the test and evaluation of the CD-ROM program using an advanced driving simulator.

Optimizing JOBS: Evaluation versus Administration

The nation has been reforming welfare for over 30 years. Welfare here means Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the principal federal-state family assistance program. AFDC has been controversial since the late 1960s and early 1970s, when its caseload suddenly mushroomed from five million to 11 million persons. After changing little for 15 years, the rolls jumped again, from 11 to 14 million, between 1989 and 1993. That made welfare reform an issue in presidential campaigns. The proportion of adults on welfare who work is much lower than the proportion of people off welfare who work. The public, according to opinion studies, wants to demand work of the welfare adults while protecting vulnerable children. Promoting work within the welfare system, rather than just cutting back aid, meets both of those objectives. Accordingly, the leading approach to welfare reform has been to change welfare benefits or requirements so that more adult recipients will go to work. Several times, Congress has created employment programs intended to move employable recipients into jobs. The latest and most ambitious of these is the Jobs Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS) created by the Family Support Act of 1988, the last federal welfare legislation. JOBS can require adults on welfare to participate in work or training as a condition of eligibility for aid. However, neither the Family Support Act nor its regulations give localities much guidance about how to run JOBS. Primarily, the act mandated that states involve increasing numbers of the employable recipients in the program (roughly, welfare parents with children at least three years old and otherwise not required in the home), or face reductions in federal funding. Twenty percent of the employable recipients had to be active in JOBS on a monthly basis by 1995, a level that sounds low but was much higher than the level under previous law.(1) Some states strained to implement JOBS this fully. Because of their own limited funding, states have been unable to claim all the federal matching funds available for JOBS (Hagen and Lurie, 1994). The Family Support Act, however, took no position on the two key policy issues that have emerged from research on welfare employment programs. First, should programs be voluntary, or should they mandate participation by those eligible? Second, should participation stress the education or training of clients for good jobs in the future, or should it emphasize immediate employment in available jobs, even if they are low-wage jobs? The act required participation only implicitly in chat it allowed states to sanction recipients, chat is, reduce their grants for nonparticipation. In practice, most states found they had to enforce involvement to meet the new participation thresholds. The act also equivocated about immediate work. It permitted states to assign clients to unpaid government jobs (workfare), but it also favored education over job search for young mothers without high school diplomas. Normally, the goals of employment programs are based on performance measures defined by Washington to hold local programs accountable. The Family Support Act left the drafting of performance measures for JOBS to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but no measures have emerged. The department was told to finish the task by 1993, but it has put off the deadline until 1998. Some reasons for the delay were political. Development of the measures was disrupted by Bush's defeat in 1992. The priority of the new Clinton administration was to draft its own welfare reform plan, not to craft indicators for JOBS. Health and Human Services was held up, as well, by disputes among federal and local officials about what purposes the new measures should serve (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1994). Most states criticize federal planners for failure to define indicators, but most also want flexibility in setting norms for themselves (U. …

Speaking of personal responsibility and individual accountability....

It being an election year, late summer 1996 has seen a feeding frenzy of accomplishments fly from the 104th Contract with America Congress. While most of us were watching the Olympics, the Congress--deeply fearful of being labeled nothing--proved that it could reform health care and welfareasweknowit after all (Welfareasweknowit, 1996, p.3). legislation free-falling from Capitol Hill to the White House in August echoed the themes invoked gratuitously during August's Republican National Convention--God, family, honor, duty, country--usually followed by the party mantra: personal responsibility and individual accountability. When Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole declared in his acceptance speech, Individual accountability must replace collective excuses, he insulted social workers everywhere, implying that community-based programs, social security, and health coverage for all Americans somehow exacerbate weakness in the American character. Two pieces of legislation, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) and the Health Insurance Reform Act (P.L. 104-191, 1996), which emerged from conference committees in early August and which President Bill Clinton signed in late August, will operationalize these overworked cliches as thoroughly as anything else this Congress did. That partisan refrain, personal responsibility and individual accountability, is now heard playing like a broken record on our collective consciousness--from 50 statehouses, from every local government, and in every school. It is already shaping the work of planners and budgeters; eligibility examiners; child welfare, hospital, and nursing home social workers; mental health therapists; and selfless volunteers throughout the land. Like it or not, we all are implementing these complex, probusiness, and regressive welfare statutes. REAL INTENDED HARM: THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK OPPORTUNITY RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1996 Implications for Welfare Am I missing something? Throw people off welfare in the name of strengthening families and alleviating poverty? asked New Republic contributor Alex Kotlowitz (1996) of the congressional welfare bill. He continued, The `logic' goes something like this: Ending a mother's welfare payments will force her to find a job. Bingo. We've got a working mom, and she's no longer poor. Why didn't we think of this a long time ago? (p. 19). Why not, indeed. experts insisted that reforming welfare would require spending more, not less, money. Nonetheless, P.L. 104-193 will reduce federal spending by $54 billion over the next six years, with the budget savings coming chiefly from cutting food stamps, throwing more than 1 million children into poverty, increasing hunger, and preventing legal immigrants from gaining access to most federal benefits (National Health Law Program, National Center for Youth Law, & National Senior Citizens Law Center, 1996). As passed, the legislation ends the oldest program in the safety net, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Although the federally assisted AFDC program dates back to 1935 and the original Social Security Act, Skocpol (1996) noted that these mothers' pensions date back even farther to the 1910s, when 40 states passed laws allowing local governments to make payments to impoverished widows so they could care for their children in their own homes rather than surrendering them to orphanages or foster care. In addition to eliminating entitlement to AFDC as of October 1, 1996, P.L. 104-193 repeals the Job Opportunity and Basic Skills Training program and Emergency Assistance to Families with Children. These programs are being replaced by capped state block grants called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which do not go into effect until July 1, 1997. TANF's benefits are limited to a maximum of five years, with recipients required to work after two. …

The Participants' Perspective on the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program

In this study, we sought to bring into view the perspective of welfare recipients regarding the nation's welfare employment program, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training program. We conducted face-to-face interviews with participants in four communities and completed follow-up telephone interviews several months later. The findings indicate that participating in a welfare employment program can be a worthwhile experience for mothers on welfare and their preschool children. However, inadequate resources may limit the program's effectiveness, and employment findings suggest that the women will continue to need public assistance benefits, particularly Medicaid and food stamps, to support their families.

Do First‐Year Intervention Effects Endure? Follow‐Up during Toddlerhood of a Sample of Dutch Irritable Infants

This study evaluated the enduring effectiveness of a skill-based training program to enhance maternal sensitivity between 6 and 9 months of age. 82 mothers and their toddlers were evaluated at 18 and 24 months, and 79 at 31/2 years on the bases of observations of free play, everyday interaction, problem solving, and peer interaction. Most of the significant behavioral changes noted in the second year pertain to attachment security, indices of maternal sensitivity across situations, and child cooperation. Some enduring effects on indices of sensitivity appear to be attachment-mediated. In the third year, results revealed direct enduring intervention effects on parental responsiveness and child cooperation. Attachment-mediated effects were evident for maternal assistance, child security, and positive peer contact. Attachment pattern also predicted differences in attractiveness of the focal child as an interactive partner.

Implementing JOBS: A View from the Front Line

Front-line workers fulfill a critical role in the implementation of the Job Opportunity and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS), a welfare-employment program authorized under the Family Support Act of 1988. This study of front-line workers suggests that workers strongly support the JOBS program and its goals. They have reservations abut the effectiveness of the JOBS program, however, and identified two major barriers to implementation: inadequate funding for education and training services and the lack of available employment opportunities in their local communities.

Effects of Welfare Reform on Teenage Parents and Their Children

A key question in welfare policy concerns the potential that welfare-to-work programs have to develop in teenage parents the motivation and skills to provide financially for themselves and their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was a major experiment initiated in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and evaluated by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., to test the impact of a welfare-to-work program for teenage parents which anticipated many features of the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills training program later established in the Family Support Act of 1988. Teenage mothers entering the welfare system were randomly assigned to a regular services group or to an enhanced services group. Teen mothers in the enhanced services group faced mandatory school and work requirements enforced by financial sanctions and received support services such as case management, parenting workshops, child care assistance, and education and training opportunities. This article reviews the policy context in which the Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was designed and implemented, and describes how participation in the enhanced services group affected the teen mothers as adults and as parents. Results showed that, for the reasonable aggregate annual cost of $2,400 per participant, the program increased the 'teenagers' attendance at school and job training programs, and modestly increased the proportion who were employed to 48%, compared with 43% among those receiving regular welfare services. As the participants' earnings from employment increased, their welfare grants shrank. Because these changes offset each other, the program did not improve the economic well-being of the families, although fewer tax dollars were needed to support them. The program did not discourage further childbearing, however, or affect either the parenting behavior of the young women or the development of their children, although the mothers who were most engaged in self-sufficiency activities were more positive and supportive when playing with their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration experience revealed that the problems faced by teenage parents vary widely, making tailored services necessary. The evaluation results suggest that supportive, mandatory welfare-to-work interventions need not harm parents or their children in the short term, and that their modest positive effects on the financial independence of the teenage mothers may yield long-term rewards.

The family support act and children: Potential pathways of influence

The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS), implemented in response to the Family Support Act of 1988, has the potential to affect children's lives not only through changes in maternal education and family economic self-sufficiency but also through children's experiences in nonmaternal care and changes in maternal subjective well-being. Previous research provides good evidence that each of these potential pathways of influence is important in shaping children's development. Nevertheless, the available evidence provides only limited grounds on which to make predictions specifically regarding children and the Family Support Act. This paper identifies the problems in generalizing from the available data to the possible outcomes for children of a mandatory program like JOBS, summarizes ongoing research focusing on the children of mothers assigned to participate in JOBS, and considers future research steps that will be needed to understand the implications for children of programs to enhance the self-sufficiency of welfare mothers.

The Family Support Act: Reinventing the Wheel?

On October 13, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Family Support Act, which established the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS). The act requires that states provide education, training, and employment activities for employable individuals who have children over three years of age and who are receiving benefits from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. The activities may include participation in basic or remedial education, high school education, instruction in English as a second language, job readiness preparation, vocational education, on-the-job training, job search assistance, work experience, or postsecondary education. Additional supports include child care for participants' dependents and, for those who find work, Medicaid coverage and transitional child care for 12 months after employment. The goal of JOBS is to enable these individuals to improve their employment opportunities and to become self-sufficient. This new initiative may be less than revolutionary. Neustadt and May (1986) stressed that the historical relevance of past programs should be evaluated by policymakers and legislators when planning new programs, because comparing past with present strategies provides an opportunity to learn from previous successes and failures and therefore to develop realistic plans. Aspects of JOBS are similar to some components of the Work Incentive Program (WIN), which preceded it. WIN applied to employable AFDC recipients who had children over the age of six and included training, education, and work experience activities. A study completed by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO, 1973) indicated that limited employment opportunities and unwieldy caseloads hampered the effectiveness of WIN. A more recent GAO study (1988) reinforced the finding that state welfare department caseworkers had large caseloads, allowing them insufficient time to serve their clients. Although WIN emphasized the need for training and education to promote self-sufficiency, the emphasis changed when it became clear that recipients were not obtaining jobs in sufficient numbers and that the welfare rolls had not diminished (Goodwin, 1989). As a result, priority was given to placement in jobs rather than to education or training programs (Glantz & Byrne, 1981). However, less than 2 percent of the total AFDC population became employed through WIN because the program failed to tailor its activities to existing labor market conditions (Schiller, 1973). Most of the jobs found were temporary ones, requiring minimal skills and paying only slightly more than the minimum wage (Garvin, Smith, & Reid, 1978; Sulvetta, 1978). Because of the experiences of WIN, it is apparent that caseload size, placement in educational and training activities, and the type of job a participant obtains are important considerations when evaluating JOBS. This article presents findings from an exploratory study of JOBS, examines and analyzes information received in response to a survey of state JOBS programs, and discusses whether JOBS shares the same problems faced by WIN. Methodology The survey sought the following information: * average caseload size for caseworkers actively involved in education, training, and employment activities for JOBS * types of activities (training, education, and employment) available for JOBS participants * percentage of JOBS participants who obtained employment * average earned hourly income of JOBS participants who obtained employment * occupational areas in which employment was found for JOBS participants. In March 1991, the survey and a descriptive cover letter were sent to directors of JOBS programs in all 50 states. Names and addresses were obtained from the Annual Directory of the American Public Welfare Association (Weinstein, 1991). Forty states responded (80 percent response rate). …

A Skill-Based Approach to Training and Development within Clinical Data Coordination

To utilize information technologies that enable patient data to be reviewed via computer instead of the more traditional paper review, the Clinical Data Coordination Department at R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute created a skill-based training program to integrate these technologies into their work process. Coordinators serve as functional generalists for therapeutic area teams. Following the work flow created by the technologies, an employee design committee developed the training. Training was skill-based, developing the skills and knowledge necessary for effective task execution. These skills and knowledge were grouped into skill blocks, mirroring the major segments of work. After structured training, a block assessment evaluated the successful completion of each skill block. Completion of training was largely self-paced to accommodate individual learning rates. Beyond the successful integration of technologies, the training resulted in clear, measurable standards for departmental and em...

The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program and Child Care: Initial State Developments

In enacting the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training program (JOBS), Congress recognized that the participation of many mothers with young children would depend on child care. In this article, we consider how 10 states initially responded to the child-care provisions of the legislation. Although many state administrators perceived both the supply and funding of child care as adequate at the time of the study, most viewed child care as a quasi entitlement, available as long as state funding allowed. Not surprisingly, limited state funding for child care has already resulted in restricted access to the JOBS program and to child-care support for other low-income, nonAid to Families with Dependent Children families.

Impact on knowledge and practice of a multiregional long-term care facility infection control training program

Few affordable training opportunities are specifically designed for the long-term care facility infection control practitioner. There is also little evidence of the success of training in improving infection control practices. The Nebraska Infection Control Network developed a 2-day basic skills training program for Midwestern long-term care facility infection control practitioners that was later disseminated to eastern and western training sites. In this study we examined the effectiveness of the training program in terms of trainee knowledge and practice. From 1986 to 1990, a total of 17 courses conducted at the three sites were attended by a total of 266 infection control practitioners. Trainees completed a 40-item multiple choice test before and after training to evaluate their knowledge gain. Implementation of eight key infection control practices and time devoted to infection control duties were measured before training and at 3 and 12 months after training. Implementation of infection control practices was also evaluated in a second study, with infection control practitioners randomly assigned to trained and wait-control conditions. Significant increases after training were found at each site for both knowledge and implementation measures. These increases were maintained at 12 months follow-up. Time devoted to infection control duties increased significantly at the midwest and western sites but not at the eastern site. In the second study, significant differences were found between the trained and the wait-control group in use of infection control practices, providing evidence for a causal relationship between training and increased use of practices. The training program was effective in producing improvements in knowledge and implementation of recommended infection control practices in long-term care facilities. These improvements were consistent across three diverse geographic areas. There were some specific geographic differences.

JOBS Implementation in 1991: The Progress of Ten States

The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS), enacted by the Family Support Act of 1988, provides an array of services intended to increase the earning capacity and labor-force participation of welfare recipients. Because the law gives states discretion in creating JOBS programs, a ten-state, three-year study of JOBS implementation is under way. During federal fiscal year 1991, the first year in which all states must operate JOBS, most of the ten states made incremental changes to the programs they had in place before JOBS. They designed their programs to be flexible enough to cope with uncertainty about the types and availability of service components. As a group, they spent enough to draw down 43 percent of their federal JOBS funds. To obtain education, training, and employment services, state welfare agencies are contracting with many organizations. Most state welfare agencies are also obtaining resourcesfrom other agencies without payment. Although states generally implemented JOBS with little fanfare, they all planned to meet the federal mandates for program participation and targeting of expenditures in 1991.