Performance Measures Attachment

NOTE: These performance measurement guidelines are still undergoing development and review and should not be construed as final.

WIA Performance Requirements

Under WIA there are seven required core performance measures for youth. Four of these measures apply to older youth (ages 19 - 21): entered employment, retention in employment, earnings change, and credential attainment rate. The other three measures apply to younger youth (ages of 14-18): skill attainment rate, diploma and equivalent attainment rate, and retention rate (refers to retention in employment, post-secondary education, military, qualified apprenticeship, or advanced training). The core performance measures for youth have been defined to reflect the comprehensive services, linkages between summer activities to academic and occupational learning, flexibility of program design, and continuum of services that are called for under the WIA.

Older Youth (age 19-21) Core Performance Measures

Older Youth Entered Employment Rate

Of those who are not employed at registration and do not move on to post-secondary education or advanced training: Number of older youth who have entered employment by the end of the first quarter after exit divided by the number of older youth who exit during the quarter;

Older Youth Employment Retention Rate at Six Months

Of those who are employed at registration or in the first quarter after exit and who do not move on to post-secondary education or advanced training: Number of older youth who are employed in third quarter after exit divided by the number of older youth who exit during the quarter;

Older Youth Average Earnings Change in Six Months

Of those who are employed at registration or in the first quarter after exit and who do not move on to post-secondary education or advanced training: Total post-program earnings (earnings in quarter 2 + quarter 3 after exit) minus pre-program earnings (earnings in quarter 2 + quarter 3 prior to registration) divided by the number of older youth who exit during the quarter;

Older Youth Employment and Credential Rate

Number of older youth who are in employment or post-secondary education or advanced training by the end of the first quarter after exit and received a credential by the end of the third quarter after exit divided by the number of older youth who exited during the quarter.

Younger Youth (age 14-18) Core Performance Measures

Skill Attainment Rate

Total number of basic skills goals attained by younger youth plus number of work readiness skills goals attained by younger youth plus number of occupational skills goals attained by younger youth divided by the total number of basic skills goals plus the number of work readiness skills plus the number of occupational skills goals;

Diploma or Equivalency Attainment Rate

Of those who register without a diploma or equivalent: Number of younger youth who attained secondary school diploma or equivalent during the quarter divided by the number of younger youth who did not attain a diploma or equivalent and who exited during the quarter (except those still in secondary school) plus younger youth who have attained a diploma or equivalent during the quarter;

Retention Rate

Number of younger youth found in one of the following in the third quarter following exit: post secondary education, advanced training, employment, military service, or qualified apprenticeships divided by the number of younger youth who exited during the quarter (except those still in secondary school).

How to Determine Appropriate Youth Measures for Youth

Since there are two sets of measures within the youth funding stream, the following rule applies for those served by the youth funding stream: a youth must be included in the set of measures that applies based on their age at registration (i.e. if a youth is between the ages of 14 and 18 at registration, they will be included in the younger youth measures and a youth between the ages of 19-21 at registration will be included in the older youth measures) regardless of how old the participant is at exit.

Linkages to Partner Services

To encourage integration of services across programs (WIA Title I funded and non-WIA Title I funded) and recognize shared contributions toward outcomes, the following strategy for tracking and reporting on the core measures across programs will be used. WIA Title I funded youth programs can count participants who receive services provided by non-WIA Title I funded school-to-work (i.e., schools) and one-stop partner programs in the WIA core measures as long as the individual has been registered for WIA Title I youth services (all individuals receiving youth services will be registered) and:

a) is concurrently receiving WIA Title I funded youth services while receiving partner services;

b) is scheduled to receive WIA Title I funded youth services at a future date while receiving partner services or upon exit of the partner services; or

c) moves to partner services, and can be tracked while receiving and upon exit of partner services.

Tracking youth across WIA Title I and non-WIA Title I programs can be more effectively implemented in communities with strong school-to-work partnerships linking schools to workforce investment services.

When to Count Outcomes

All of the core measures for youth are assessed at the time a youth exits except the younger youth skill attainment rate. For that measure, positive outcomes are recorded as they occur. The youth has one year from the anniversary of the date the goal was set to achieve the goal.

For the exit based measures, outcomes are determined when the individual leaves the program (i.e. exit). The Department developed a definition of "exiter" to determine when to count an individual in a specified reporting period.

Exiter is defined as: a customer who has an inactivation or termination date within the quarter (hard exit date) or who does not receive any WIA-funded or non-WIA funded partner service for 90 days and is not scheduled for future services except follow-up services (soft exit date). Participants may have a gap in service greater than 90 days and be excluded from the core measures due to health/medical conditions and delays before training begins. Once a participant has not received any WIA service for 90 days except follow-up services and there are no future services scheduled (or there is no planned gap in service), then that participant has exited WIA for the purposes of measurement in the exit based measures.

Setting Appropriate Goal(s)

Within the skill attainment rate, three types of skills are being assessed within this one measure: basic skills, work readiness skills, and/or occupational skills. All younger youth who are determined basic skills deficient (defined as an individual who has English reading, writing, or computing skills at or below the 8^th grade level on a generally accepted standardized test or a comparable score on a criterion-referenced test) must have a basic skills goal that will be held accountable to in the skill attainment rate. In addition to that basic skills goal, the participant may also have a work readiness goal and/or an occupational skills goal. If the participant is not basic skills deficient and therefore does not have a basic skills goal, the individual must have a work readiness and/or an occupational skills goal if they are an in-school youth. If the participant is an out of school youth (not in need of basic skills), it is a local option whether or not a work readiness skills goal and/or an occupational skills goal is necessary. In the example of a younger youth who only participates in the summer activity, exits, and returns to secondary school following the summer activity, if that participant is not deemed to be basic skills deficient, then a work readiness skills goal would be most appropriate for that youth. This work readiness skills goal could be tied to their summer youth experience in order to make it feasible to attain such a goal. If the participant is basic skills deficient, they must have a basic skills goal and it would be more appropriate to continue serving such a participant beyond their summer experience.

Timing of Skill Attainment Measure

For those youth who will have skill attainment goals (see discussion above), at least one goal must be set upon initial assessment of the participant. Once a goal is set, the participant has up to one year to achieve each goal set. Attainment of a goal is counted as it is achieved (i.e. goal attainment counted in the quarter in which the goal was achieved). If the goal is not achieved by the one year anniversary of the dates the goal was set, the failure is counted in the quarter of the anniversary date. New goals may be set as initial goals are achieved; however, each participant is allowed only three goal attainments each year. Participants may have any combination of the three types of skill goals (three skill goals in the same category, two skill goals in one category and one skill goal in another, or one skill goal in each category, etc.).