Legislative Principles

7. Performance measures and standards should continue to be used to gauge the success of programs and guide their continuous improvement; these program measures should incorporate newly developing academic and occupational skill standards for individuals.

By requiring states to develop performance measures and standards, the 1990 Amendments to the Carl Perkins Act helped educational institutions shift from a concern with inputs and process-related standards to outcomes. In the first round, states appear to have done a good job of developing performance measures (Hoachlander, Levesque, and Rahn, 1992), but their local implementation has lagged. In addition, the systems of measures and standards developed so far have often been unconnected with the other components of the 1990 Amendments (e.g., with tech-prep programs or the treatment of special populations), and states have paid little attention to how data will be used to promote program improvement (Stecher et al., 1994; Stecher and Hanser, 1993). New Federal legislation should therefore stress the continued development of performance measures and standards to improve accountability; however, it should concentrate on local implementation of outcome measures to provide feedback to both students and educational institutions in the interests of program improvement.

In addition, the development of accountability measures has now proceeded to the point that several problems have emerged requiring Federal attention. For instance, some states have not yet addressed the measurement problems inherent in some outcome measures (e.g., gains in academic skills at the postsecondary level), and the reliability and validity of outcome measures have not been carefully examined. Many of these problems are too large or technical for states to address without Federal help. Moreover, states are currently swamped by conflicting demands and will flounder without explicit guidance about how to reconcile different accountability systems; at the local level, teachers and administrators are often bewildered by the different assessments and standards they face (Little, 1992). While Federal legislation should continue to develop performance standards, Federal efforts should consider carefully the ways in which they reinforce or conflict with other standards. Also, the Federal government could help convene the various groups that are developing assessments to explore ways to make them consistent.

Performance measures and standards for programs should be connected to occupational and industrial skill standards for individuals, as these are developed. Such standards can help students understand what they need to learn, help schools decide what they need to teach, and give employers a stronger sense of the skills and abilities of applicants. Developing and administrating systems of skill standards will also provide a natural forum for cooperation between schools and employers. Skill standards should have the following characteristics: 1) They must be easily updated. 2) They must be specific enough to be a meaningful indication of the skills and abilities of workers and students, yet broad enough to allow job mobility and flexibility. 3) They must help students prepare for emerging jobs rather than declining jobs. 4) Workers, unions, employers, and educators must be involved in developing, implementing, and administrating skill standards systems. 5) They must be widely recognized and accepted by students, employers, and educational institutions. While these issues are being considered by the current pilot projects and may be addressed by the National Skill Standards Board to some extent, there has been little discussion so far about how curriculum and in-school as well as on-the-job pedagogy must change to reflect the standards (Bailey and Merritt, 1994).

Finally, performance standards for career-oriented education and training programs must also be linked to academic skill standards for individual students. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act established a process for creating standards that reflect the nation's goals for education. Some of these goals relate to performance in particular academic subjects, while others refer to more general thinking skills and preparation to compete in the world economy. All of these goals are relevant to career-focused education and training programs in schools and colleges and for youth and adults who are not in school.