## Research Projects Discussed in Session

PIAAC Small-Area Estimates Small-Area Estimates : Currently, PIAAC estimates are only available at the national level. New data files will be released in early 2020 that allow users to estimate literacy and numeracy skills at the state and county levels. These small-area estimates will be an invaluable resource to use in state and local planning for targeting services where needed most. National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education (NSIAE) Under the Workforce Innovation Study of the Implementation of Adult Education (NSIAE) Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Opportunity Act (WIOA) : NSIAE, administered by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and funded through the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), represents the first step in the national assessment of adult education under WIOA. The implementation study is intended to describe how states and local providers are responding to the changes in adult education practices intended under WIOA, and the challenges they are experiencing in implementing those changes. This session will include information about the planned data collections for the study, and the types of analyses and reports that will be produced. State leaders will be informed about how the study will impact them and their local providers, how they will be asked to help, and what they can expect to learn from the study. Assessing Evidence of Effectiveness in Adult Education Evidence of Effectiveness in Adult Education : As part of meeting WIOA's legislated mandate for a national assessment of adult education, the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is examining the feasibility of conducting impact studies to assess the effectiveness of promising adult education strategies and services, under funding from the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE). This session will provide a preliminary description of the study's goal s and activities and will elicit participant input on the types of strategies and services that would be most valuable to study. NRS Regional Training: Evaluating Program Effectiveness. Last summer, the NRS regional training sessions focused on evaluation methods and ways to implement evaluation methods in states as a method of program improvement and to prepare for evaluation requirements of WIOA. Using a logical model approach, state staff from the 40 states and territories attending the training identified a topic to evaluate and developed research questions, programmatic changes and outcomes to answer the research question. This session will summarize the training and the topics identified by the states for evaluation. Wewill discuss the implications for future research and additional training needs.

## Resources

PIAAC PIAAC Study site: http://piaacgateway.com/ PIAAC Gateway site: Study Description for the National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education Under WIOA: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/evaluation/pathways\_wioa.asp Materials and presentations from the 2018 NRS regional training NRS Summer 2018 Data Training:

## Additional Resources