United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-02-01 monographic deposited born digital 42 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-275 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275 P0b002ee18038b61a f:d02275 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275 GAO-02-275 Federal/state relations Labor force Labor law Performance measures State/local relations Data collection Reporting requirements Employment or training programs Program evaluation Adult and Dislocated Worker Program DOL Adult Education and Literacy Program Dept. of Education Vocational Education Program Other Written Product A02658 Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1998 to bring most federally funded employment and training services into a single, one one-stop center system. GAO assessed three programs that provide service through this system. States and localities have begun to implement the new performance measurement system for the three WIA-funded programs but report several challenges. States had to change the way they collected and reported performance data. They also faced challenges in implementing these measures due to their complexity and the resource demands created by new measures. Some developed new procedures to obtain access to sensitive records. The performance levels are of particular concern to state and local officials because failure to meet them can result in financial sanctions. As a result, states may be choosing to serve only those job seekers who are most likely to be successful. Even when fully implemented, performance measures may not provide a true picture of WIA-funded program performance because data are neither comparable across states nor timely. The measures include many of the indicators relevant to an employment and training program, such as getting and keeping jobs and increasing wages and skills. Although measures exist to gauge the performance of the three WIA-funded programs, there are no measures to gauge the performance of the one-stop system as a whole. At least 17 programs provide services through the one-stop system, and most have their own performance measures. Although these performance measures may be used for assessing outcomes for individual programs, they cannot be used to measure the success of the overall system. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275.pdf GAO-02-275 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-275 Other Written Product GAO-02-275; Workforce Investment Act: Improvements Needed in Performance Measures to Provide a More Accurate Picture of WIA's Effectiveness; Federal/state relations Labor force Labor law Performance measures State/local relations Data collection Reporting requirements Employment or training programs Program evaluation Adult and Dislocated Worker Program DOL Adult Education and Literacy Program Dept. of Education Vocational Education Program