21st Century Accountability: Perkins III and WIA
The performance accountability partnership among the states, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Labor entered a new era with the passage of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Amendments of 1998 (Perkins III) and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). Quality management principles promoted by the Baldridge National Quality Program and the International Organization for Standardization characterize this new era.
This paper addresses the application of these performance excellence criteria to the Perkins III performance measurement process. It begins with a description of Perkins III and WIA core indicators of performance, placing them in the historical context of 20th-century federal accountability for vocational-technical education in order to explain the current emphasis on compatibility among federal performance information systems.
Following a review of major vocational education and workforce development legislation and assessments, the heart of the paper is a discussion of Perkins III and WIA Title I and Title II accountability processes.
Stevens, D. W. (2001). 21st century accountability: Perkins III and WIA. St. Paul, MN: National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, University of Minnesota.