Welfare Reform. Assessing the Effectiveness of Various Welfare-to-Work Approaches. Report to Congressional Committees.

A study examined research conducted on the effectiveness of different welfare-to-work approaches. Five evaluations begun in the 1980s with five-year results indicated that programs focusing on rapid employment and job search activities combined with education and training activities more often increased employment and earnings and reduced welfare payments, when compared with programs that focused solely on job search activities or those that placed the greatest emphasis on education. Preliminary results (2-year findings) were obtained from a more recent ongoing evaluation started in 1992--the only evaluation designed explicitly to compare the effectiveness of a rapid-employment approach with an education-based welfare-to-work approach. The results showed that, although each approach has increased participants' employment and earnings, neither approach has proven itself clearly better. The rapid employment approach did cost about half as much per person as the education-based approach. Recent studies of factors affecting cognitive development of children in welfare families indicated a mother's higher level of educational attainment was one factor that may positively affect children's development. A body of research on effects of poverty on children's educational attainment suggested a significant positive relationship between parents' and their children's educational attainment among welfare and non-welfare populations. (Appendixes contain 39 references, study scope and methodology, and comments from the Department of Health and Human Services.) (YLB)