Connecting Adults to Success: Career Navigator Training Study (CATS Study)

The Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education requests clearance for a revision to the Connecting Adults to Success: Evaluation of Career Navigator Training (1850-0973, approved on July 18, 2022). This demonstration study examines the impact of training for career navigators—local adult education provider staff who provide services to address the challenges that learners face navigating the transition to the workforce and to further education and training. The study compares the education and employment outcomes of learners enrolled in adult education sites whose career navigators are assigned by lottery to receive the study’s training (the treatment group) with the outcomes of learners enrolled in the business-as-usual sites who are assigned by lottery to receive the study's training after the study period (the comparison group). Approximately 64 adult education sites nationally are participating in the study. Impacts on learners' education and employment outcomes will be examined after 18 and 30 months. The revision is for the purpose of shifting one component of the approved data collection plan – frequent adult education career navigator-completed logs—to add a single follow-up survey to ensure the study can still examine whether the training leads to changes in these practices. The survey is now needed because of concerns about low response rates and data quality from early rounds of those logs.

The latest form for Connecting Adults to Success: Career Navigator Training Study (CATS Study) expires 2027-05-31 and can be found here.