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92 Monthly Lab. Rev. 59 (1969)
Monitoring Manpower Programs

handle is hein.journals/month92 and id is 711 raw text is: Monitoring manpower programs GERALD G. SOMERS DATA NEEDS for the monitoring and evaluation of manpower programs are qualitative as well as quantitative, and the greatest deficiencies now lie in the former rather than the latter. Quality can be improved not only through improvements in the availability and utilization of existing data, hut through the acquisition of new data by means of interview. surveys and experimental evaluation- research projects, as described below. Imprqvements in existing operating data and in their utilization. The direct approach to the elimi- nation of data gaps in operating forms is through the education of operating personnel. They should be instructed concerning the importance of asking the right questions. Since it is unlikely that a program of education can be successfully applied in all manpower pro- grams across the country, a more realistic ap- proach might be the insistence on excellence for a carefully selected probability sample. Special ef- forts could be made, through instruction and sur- veillance, to insure that the forms were properly completed. This sample could provide benchmark data by which the reporting forms of all other programs could be evaluated. Such a compromise between the unobtainable goal of full and accurate data in all operating psograms and the alternative of a continualice of present difficulties should be feasible without undue cost. This excerpt is adapted from Data Needs for Moni- toring and Evaluating Manpower Programs, by Gerald G. Somers, chairman of the Department of Economics, Uni- versity of Wisconin, presented at the annual meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association in Chicago, December 29-30, 1968. The full paper is included In the Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual Winter Meeting, available from the IRRA, Social Science Building, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Improvements in the operating data produced by the programs themselves should be supple- mented by better utilization of social security data on earnings and employment of enrollees and of selected control groups. Although we are all aware of the limitations of social security data, especially with regard to the cutoff in reported earnings, these data, when appropriately adjusted, are far superior to the earnings data now acquired through the short term and haphazard followup of manpower programs by operating personnel. Plans are now underway to utilize social secu- rity earnings data in the ongoing evaluation of MDTA training. This is a significant departure, and it should be watched carefully with an eye to its extension to other manpower programs. Special 8ample interciew 8ureys. Federal funds must be used in connection with those from foundations and university sources to extend in- terview surveys among enrollees in manpower pro- grams and appropriate control groups. Such surveys, giving careful attention to a lengthier period of followup than is customarily possible in government evaluations, would provide em- ployment and income data for the calculation of opportunity costs as well as for comparison of benefits before and after the program. The inter- view surveys would also make possible an em- phasis on attitudinal questions. Experimental-research q v a I u a t i o n project8. Since these interview surveys come after the fact, they are still not likely to include a valid control group. The ideal control group is a group of work- ers identical to the enrollees, with the same out- look, ambition, and attitudes-as well as similar objective characteristics. This group can best be found among those who apply for admission to the manpower program, are accepted by the selec- tion officials, and yet are not included. It is probable that such an ideal control group can be found only in a deliberately constructed 59

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