Publications
TANF Recipients
 "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Uneven Economic Progress of TANF Recipients." Robert G. Wood, Quinn Moore, and Anu Rangarajan, Social Service Review, March 2008. This article investigates the long-term economic gains of current and former TANF recipients and explores the extent to which these recipients experience steady economic progress. Results suggest that recipients generally show economic progress but that there is considerable instability and heterogeneity of experience. Employment insecurity and poverty cycling are common even among the least disadvantaged TANF recipients and are particularly prevalent among those with low education levels, little work experience, and poor health.
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Medicaid Data
 "A Profile of Medicaid Institutional and Community-Based Long-Term Care Service Use and Expenditures Among the Aged and Disabled Using MAX 2002." Audra T. Wenzlow, Robert Schmitz, and Kathy Shepperson, January 2008. This report examines how person-level data in the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data system can be used to better understand long-term care service use and expenditures, and to evaluate the utility of MAX data for further study of long-term care. The authors compare expenditure and utilization-based measures of the balance of institutional and community-based long-term care services. They also examine long-term care expenditures and utilization for two key groups of enrollees—young disabled enrollees and enrollees ages 65 and older. The article decomposes community-based long-term care expenditures by type of service and summarizes other Medicaid services used and costs incurred in 2002. Executive summary.
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Nursing Home Services
 "Medicaid-Financed Nursing Home Services: Characteristics of People Served and Their Patterns of Care, 2001-2002." Audra T. Wenzlow, Robert Schmitz, and Jill Gurvey, January 2008. This report describes patterns of Medicaid nursing home utilization for each state and nationally. The authors address the following questions: (1) What are the characteristics of people who use Medicaid nursing home services? (2) How do these people become eligible for Medicaid? (3) How long do Medicaid-covered nursing home spells last and how often do individuals return to nursing homes? They also examine how state policies are associated with nursing home utilization. Executive Summary.
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Childhood Obesity
 "Results from the ‘I Am Moving, I Am Learning’ Stage 1 Survey." Daniel Finkelstein, Robert Whitaker, Elaine Hill, Mary Kay Fox, Linda Mendenko, and Kimberly Boller, October 2007. The Head Start “I Am Moving, I Am Learning” initiative aims to prevent childhood obesity by increasing the time children spend in physical activity, improving the quality of these activities, and promoting healthy food choices. This report examines the extent to which grantees who participated in spring 2006 training implemented enhancements. Most tried to do so and chose enhancements related to physical activity and structured movement more often than enhancements related to nutrition. Most programs felt their implementation was successful, although only half had a written plan for implementation, so it is not clear if these efforts can be sustained.
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Faith-Based Groups and the Workforce
 "Collaborating with Faith- and Community-Based Organizations: Lessons Learned from 12 Workforce Investment Boards." Diane Paulsell, Jeffrey Max, Michelle Derr, and Andrew Burwick, May 2007. Faith-based and community organizations have the potential to be valuable partners in the workforce investment system. This report presents findings from Mathematica’s evaluation of grants to Workforce Investment Boards to increase the number of faith-based and community organizations providing services in the One-Stop system. The grants are also intended to expand One-Stop access to groups that have not traditionally used this service. The report notes that faith-based and community organizations can extend the workforce system’s reach to underserved populations, provide services tailored to meet the needs of hard-to-serve job seekers, help people with significant barriers to employment find jobs, and leverage community resources.
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Academic Achievement
 "Academic Achievement and School Functioning Among Non-Incarcerated Youth Involved with the Juvenile Justice System." Jonathan D. Brown, Anne W. Riley, Christine M. Walrath, Philip J. Leaf, and Carmen Valdez, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, January-March 2008. This article reports on the education problems of youth involved with the juvenile justice system but not incarcerated. More than half demonstrated deficits in academic functioning, with standard achievement scores as low as five standard deviations below the normative mean. Non-Caucasian youth and those who received special education services or lived in an urban area had lower achievement. These findings suggest that youth involved with the justice system but not incarcerated demonstrate problems in academic achievement similar to incarcerated youth and may benefit from targeted education interventions.
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Chollet Testimony
 On March 5, senior fellow Deborah Chollet testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee at a hearing on Expanding Health Care Access. Read her statement on "State Comprehensive Access Initiatives."
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For more information, please contact Publications, 609-275-2350.
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