In the workforce field, participants’ choices or behaviors that harm their ability to be successful in school or work are often attributed to a lack of soft skills, motivation, or work ethic. While individual responsibility cannot be ignored, the unique circumstances and context of poverty and other cognitive biases can contribute to an individual’s actions. Behavioral economics and psychology research point toward some interventions that workforce development practitioners can use to address some of the barriers presented by poverty and human biases. These strategies, which may help unleash individuals’ potential and strengths, include the following:

• Providing decision-making, goal-setting, and planning supports
• Removing hassles and using channel factors
• Using reminders
• Using public and private commitments
• Using default options or prompted choices
• Categorizing or grouping choices
• Providing appropriate anchor or reference points
• Framing choices around gains and loss
• Providing early rewards
• Priming positive identities
• Using social proof and social influence
• Providing communications, workshops, or tutorials on the brain and learning

Other features of the report include:

• “In Focus” examples provide insight into how some of the strategies have been put into practice
• a four-step process for testing interventions and strategies
• recommendations for the workforce development system to consider in light of what is being learned from economics and psychology
• guidance on what interventions may be appropriate in specific circumstances (Appendix A)

The new high school equivalency tests ask adults to perform at a level of critical thinking that they may not have been introduced to in their earlier education. This kind of thinking means that a person is able to look at the details and see the big picture or look at the big picture and pick out the relevant details for a given situation. This kind of thinking requires keeping track of the WHOLE (the main idea) and the PARTS (the details) at the same time, while considering the relationships between them. While part-whole critical thinking is important in all academic areas and in problem-solving on the job, it is especially central to math success. Earlier institution-sponsored research revealed that about 20% of students in community college basic math and pre-algebra programs lacked a sense of part-whole relationships with whole numbers. Using the same tool with a group of 86 workforce students, about 75% placed five whole numbers on an empty number line in a way that indicated lack of part-whole thinking. This concept, needed to understand fraction and percent relationships, carries over as a grasp of the relationship between details and the main idea in factual prose, in critical thinking in job situations, and on the current high school equivalency tests. Assessing learners for their understanding of the part-whole concept allows teachers to help students strengthen either their understanding of the part-whole concept or their applied skills.

This report is designed to inform federal, state, and local corrections and correctional education administrators as they explore ways to securely and cost-effectively provide advanced technologies in corrections facilities to help strengthen and expand educational and reentry services. It describes the current status of these technologies in corrections, existing and emerging approaches to providing such services in facilities, and the successes and challenges of early implementers. The report concludes with a set of recommendations that align with the U.S. Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan.

This paper presents evidence from a large‐scale field experiment designed to improve attendance rates by texting motivational messages and organizational reminders to students, with messages drawing on insights from behavioral economics. The intervention has a large effect on attendance rates, and this effect persists for the remainder of our sample period (three consecutive weeks of messaging). To implement this experiment, we partnered with two further education colleges in England, consisting of 1179 adult learners. Both schools offer fully subsidized numeracy and literacy courses for adult learners. The hypothesis, based on the theory that psychological barriers contribute to low attendence and course persistence by school dropouts in basic literacy and numeracy classes, was that text messages sent to a random stratified sample of participants in a treatment group would positively affect attendance and course completion. The intervention text messages were also based on behavioral economics theory: 1) They were sent at a time when the student was likely to be home (Sunday evening), shifting their attention to their upcoming class; 2) They encouraged students to engage with their classmates on facebook, to increase a sense of belonging, and 3) They provided encouraging messages such as "Keep up the hard work." The initial results show that these simple text messages reduce the proportion of students that stop attending by 36% and lead to a 7% increase in average attendance relative to the control group. The effects on attendance rates persist through the three weeks of available data following the initial intervention.  

This case study examines the experiences of incarcerated adult males enrolled in a component of a re-entry program, Digital Literacy Acquisition, and is a segment of a larger focus on the reentry process for successful reintegration of prisoners into society and life.  This study takes place in the Orleans Parrish Prison (OPP), located in New Orleans, Louisiana and provides insightful information on the role of digital learning relative to rehabilitative efforts of re-entry programs within a correctional facility. The model examined in this case study is one that is self-paced, reinforced, tutor facilitated and offers online support for goal directed, learner specific content that is customizable and shareable across varying programs for use by different facilitators. The intent is for participants to learn the relevance of digital literacy to their lives, confront and overcome their fear of technology, and acquire a strong sense of self-confidence. This study explores a range of relevant topics that are specific to the adult re-entry population such as: The learner experience; Relevance; Moving from fear to confidence; Developing self-efficacy and self-confidence; Empowerment; Changing self-identity and imagining possible futures, as well as, the benefits of mentoring and implications

The UDL self-check helps expand teachers expand their teaching strategies to reach all learners. Choose a unit or a lesson that is ineffective for some students and use the UDL Self-Check to help overcome barriers the curriculum (goals, methods, materials, and assessment) may pose for them. Evaluate each curriculum element, think about them, and write self-reflections.

The Revised Career Pathways Toolkit: A Guide for System Development features Six Key Elements of Career Pathways that help to guide local and state teams through the essential components necessary for developing a comprehensive career pathways system. The components under each element are not sequential and may occur in any order. Likewise, multiple partners can engage in the components simultaneously to carry out the mission of the career pathways system. The six elements are:

1. Build cross-agency partnerships and clarify roles
2. Identify industry sectors and engage employers
3. Design education and training programs
4. Identify funding needs and sources
5. Align policies and programs
6. Measure system change and performance