[NLA] Info: Administration considering counting only employment-related preformance outcomes for adult ed.

[David J. Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

The Bush administration is considering a new performance measure plan 
for workforce development programs, including adult education programs 
funded under WIA Title II. If this plan were to be implemented, 
apparently education gain and other education outcomes would no longer 
count.

> From the Workforce Alliance Washington Update, Nov/Dec 2002: 


"A draft White House plan proposes four common measures to be used 
across programs, according to the November 25th edition of the 
Employment and Training Reporter.  The proposed policy would affect 
workforce development programs administered by the Department of Labor, 
the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of 
Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the 
Department of the Interior, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The four proposed performance measures for programs serving adults are: 
employment entry rate, job retention rate, earnings increases, and a new 
efficiency measure involving the appropriation level per participant.  
The proposed performance measures would collapse WIA's existing 17 
performance measures to four, and eliminate job seeker and employer 
satisfaction as measures of success.   Data for the entry, retention, 
and earnings gains measures would be gathered from unemployment 
insurance records..... These measurements are in line with the 
Administration's goal of linking program performance with budgetary 
decisions, and are expected to be unveiled in the President's fiscal 
year 2004 budget proposal.  They may also figure into the 
Administration's proposals to reauthorize WIA, The Carl D. Perkins 
Vocational Education Act, the Adult Education and Literacy Act, and the 
Higher Education Act."

If this were to apply to the WIA, it looks to me like the Adult 
Education and Family Literacy Act
(now WIA Title II) would not only be subsumed under workforce 
development but, because only students with employment-related goals 
could be served, it would be obliterated.

Perhaps before WIA re-authorization, those in the administration who 
understand that adult education and family literacy should be measured 
by a broader range of outcomes will prevail.  If not, this will need to 
be included in a national advocacy effort from the field.

David J. Rosen
NLA List Moderator





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