GAIN : Basic Education in a Welfare-to-Work Program. California's Greater Avenues for Independence Program / Karin Martinson and Daniel Friedlander.

An evaluation of California's statewide Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program was based mainly on a sample of more than 2,500 welfare recipients in five of the six counties included in the ongoing evaluation. The evaluation drew on previously completed analyses and new data based on a survey of these recipients and the results of a literacy test, both of which were administered to them 2-3 years after they became part of the research sample. Findings showed the following: GAIN programs all successfully met the unprecedented challenge of providing basic education to great numbers of welfare recipients; GAIN led to increases in the number of hours in basic education and in receipt of a General Educational Development certificate; in only one study county, welfare recipients experienced significant increases on scores on a test of literacy and mathematical problem solving; and at the 2-year point, there was no link between sites with educational gains and sites with earning gains. Educational gains were concentrated among individuals with relatively high levels of literacy and test score gains were concentrated in the site that created a virtually new, county-wide adult education program tailored to the special needs of people on welfare. (Appendixes include survey response analysis, supplemental tables and figures to chapters, and 24 references.) (YLB)

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