The Ray Marshall Center's research and evaluation efforts encompass a broad array of human resource development issues including employment training, education, child care and welfare reform.

Research activities at the Ray Marshall Center include:

• Program evaluation, including process and implementation, impact and benefit/cost analysis
• Survey research
• Labor market analysis
• Program design
• Policy and legislative analysis
• Training and technical assistance

The Center also provides stimulating work and research opportunities for masters and doctoral students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and rewarding research collaborations with faculty members.

History

The Center was officially rededicated as the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources in June 1999 to honor its founder upon his retirement from active teaching. Dr. Marshall continues to chair the Center's advisory committee and participate in research with staff.

Early projects focused attention on the labor market problems of African Americans in the South, the rural poor and others living outside the economic mainstream. One project in the 1970s engaged community groups and business leaders around the country to demonstrate effective ways of moving minority women into well-paying careers.

In the 1980s, Center staff worked with states and localities in the surrounding region, training professionals in employment and training programs. Other Center efforts from this period included developing strategies with labor unions to reach more women and minorities with apprenticeship training, and working with educators, community organizations, unions and other groups to create a network of state-of-the-art learning centers to prepare students for more productive careers.

Research since the mid-1980s has led to improved services for families making the transition from welfare to work. The Center has conducted comprehensive evaluations of the Texas Job Opportunities for Business Program in the early-to-mid-1990s and the (ongoing) Achieving Change for Texans Welfare Reform Demonstration, among others.

Recent and continuing work by Center staff has focused on improving the way workforce services are planned and delivered, which included contributing substantively to the design of Texas' workforce system. The federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 incorporates many of those Texas reforms. In 1995, a local workforce project in San Antonio, Project Quest, won a Ford Foundation Innovations-in-Government Award, based on a model designed by Center staff.