Measures of Program Performance and the Training Choices of Displaced Workers by Jacobson, LaLonde, and Sullivan

Passage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) has focused policymakers’ attention on measuring the performance of employment and training programs. Explicit performance measures can provide timely information to policymakers and program operators for assessing and improving their policies and programs. Under WIA’s predecessor, the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), policymakers relied on two approaches for obtaining this information. First, they used formal program evaluations, including the National JTPA Study. These evaluations estimated the “value added” or the return on investment (ROI) of these programs and their net benefit to participants, taxpayers, and governments. Second, policymakers implemented a system of performance standards. Under this system, they assess the performance of their programs by whether measures of participants’ output, such as their entered employment rate, employment retention rates, or postprogram wage levels, exceed pre-designated targets or standards (Barnow 1992). Policymakers intend that these performance standards would substitute for more costly and less timely formal ROI evaluations. Al-