Education

The 1990 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act established an accountability system for vocational education based on "outcomes " such as academic skill gains, job placement, and program completion. Current congressional proposals for workforce training differ in the emphc.sis they place on individuals, communities, and states in the accountability process, and some proposals could result in abandonment of the Perkins Act's outcome-based model for program accountability and improvement before its effectiveness has been fully evaluated. The current group of federal legislative proposals for workforce training do not give sufficient attention to which outcomes should be monitored, and most proposals are vague about the use of outcome data. Research examining the broad issue of accountability and the effects of Perkins Act provisions on workoforce training in particular has suggested th