Evaluation of the Impact of Wisconsin's Learnfare Experiment on the School Attendance of Teenagers Receiving AFDC (1992)

Abstract

In June 1988 the Wisconsin legislature authorized that an independent evaluation of the state’s “Learnfare” experiment be conducted, and in July 1989 the Employment and Training Institute secured the contract for this evaluation after a competitive bidding process. This report meets the requirement of the contract to provide a report on the state’s activities during the first two years of the “Learnfare” federal waiver. The “Learnfare” evaluation design approved by the state and federal governments in December, 1989, for completion on June 30, 1993, is testing four main hypotheses: that “Learnfare” increases the total school attendance of teenage AFDC recipients, increases the school completion rates of teenage AFDC recipients, improves the school performance of AFDC teens, and reduces the incidence of childbearing by teen AFDC recipients. The hypothesis testing will be based upon actual school records of AFDC and non-AFDC teens in Milwaukee and five representative school districts.