Improving Outcomes Through Research
The Title IV-E Education Program is committed to continuously improving outcomes for social workers, children and families alike. Using rigorous, data-driven evaluation processes, we routinely assess the efficacy of our program offerings and ensure that we are meeting our primary goal of supporting and professionalizing California's public child welfare workforce. Title IV-E evaluation efforts are led by the CalEval team, housed at the Agile Visual Analytics Lab (AVAL) at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
By providing direct financial support to graduate-level social work students across the state, we also play a key role in fostering innovative scholarship focused on some of the most pressing challenges facing the public child welfare sector. Under the supervision of leading child welfare scholars, our students develop original capstone projects that envision a robust and sustainable future for California's child welfare system. Check out the Title IV-E Student Scholar Spotlight below to learn more.
Title IV-E Program Evaluation
Title IV-E evaluation efforts are led by the CalEval team, housed at the Agile Visual Analytics Lab (AVAL) at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Title IV-E evaluation mechanisms are designed to monitor activities that comprise the program’s school period (i.e., recruitment/selection to IV-E, school-related curricular activities, and graduation from the program) and service requirement period (application to public child welfare positions, execution and completion of service requirement)
IV-E students are not required to remain in a public child welfare role beyond the two-year service requirement stipulated in their contracts. However, we also collaborate with our partners across the child welfare system, including qualifying county and Tribal agencies and training/professional development organizations, to better understand longer-term worker retention patterns. We leverage this shared knowledge to develop new recruitment and retention strategies that enhance the resilience of the public child welfare workforce.
Title IV-E evaluation instruments are designed to assess both program processes and outcomes, and include the perspectives of all program partners, including students, universities, county and Tribal agencies, CDSS and UC Davis.
To learn more about California Title IV-E evaluation practices, consult our complete Title IV-E Stiped Program Evaluation Plan. Please note that this plan was published in 2017, when the program was still housed at the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), based at UC Berkeley.
Title IV-E Reports
In March 2020, the Title IV-E team released the results of the Title IV-E Retrospective Study. This evaluation was based on the responses of more than 1,650 Title IV-E graduates and covered topics including demographics, public child welfare experience prior to entering the program, employment experiences and career trajectories (fields, positions, years worked, and employment transitions).
Title IV-E Student Scholar Showcase
Changing the Narrative on Family Maintenance
Odin Dailo’s professional path didn’t always point toward child welfare. As an undergraduate, Odin spent his days studying cell biology, working toward a career in laboratory science. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, something shifted. With the support of a Title IV-E stipend, Odin found his way to social work. Today, as a newly minted M.S.W., he’s not only working to build brighter futures for children and families, he’s helping to improve child welfare practice statewide through original research focused on supporting stable, resilient family systems.
