Madison Area Technical College's Patient Care Pathway Program: Three-Year Impact Report

This research was undertaken to evaluate whether PCPP was successful in providing training to low-skilled adults and whether the program’s efforts led to impacts on credentials, earnings, employment, and other life outcomes. The PCPP consisted of three elements: 1) a structured healthcare training pathway for prospective students denied admission to Madison College’s healthcare programs due to low scores on basic skills assessments; 2) contextualized and accelerated basic skills instruction packaged with credit-bearing courses; and 3) proactive advising to help students navigate the program admissions process, develop an academic plan, and identify and address academic and non-academic barriers to program completion.

Three years after random assignment, the report documents the effects of PCPP on:

• Educational outcomes.
• Entry into career-track employment and higher earnings.
• Individual and family well-being, including income and other life outcomes.

The evaluation of PCPP used an experimental design to assess impacts on postsecondary training, earnings and employment, and other life outcomes. Analyses in this report indicate that after three years, the program increased enrollment in occupational training, but it did not increase receipt of college credentials, employment, earnings, or family economic well-being.

Below are the findings from the evaluation:

1. PCPP did not increase receipt of a college credential requiring a year or more of training, the confirmatory educational outcome in this report.
2. PCPP increased enrollment in college occupational training but did not have impacts on other measures of educational progress.
3. Impacts of PCPP on admission to two-year healthcare degree programs were initially small, but grew larger over time.
4. PCPP had no detectable impact on average quarterly earnings in the 12th and 13th quarters, the confirmatory earnings outcome in this report.
5. PCPP had few detectable impacts on other life outcomes.

The authors did not provide any recommendations but did indicate a future report will present follow-up on participants in PCPP at approximately six years after random assignment to provide direct evidence on that conjecture, and assess whether detectable impacts on credential receipt and earnings arise by six years.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2020
• Author(s): Walton, D.; Cook, R.
• Funding Source: Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies