Kh. Anderson et al., THE EFFECT OF CREAMING ON PLACEMENT RATES UNDER THE JOB-TRAINING PARTNERSHIP ACT, Industrial & labor relations review, 46(4), 1993, pp. 613-624
The authors investigate the degree to which ''creaming''-nonrandom sel
ection of participants-in Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Title II
-A programs is responsible for the high placement rates in those progr
ams. An analysis of data from Tennessee JTPA agencies, in conjunction
with Current Population Survey data, shows that creaming does take pla
ce, especially through non-selection of those handicapped by poor educ
ation or poor health. The extent of creaming, however, is not as large
as some critics have suggested: the 71 % placement rate in Tennessee
would fall only to about 62% if participants were randomly selected fr
om among the economically disadvantaged population eligible for traini
ng. In contrast, targeting only high school dropouts for training-whic
h would have the virtue of serving a group with particularly large bar
riers to employment-would reduce success rates by nearly one-quarter.