Background

Under Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, agencies administering adult basic education funds were required to implement a system for funding programs based on performance. In response, the Indiana Department of Education's division of adult education created a new comprehensive program funding formula and established state performance measures for the core, or primary, outcome measures reported to the U.S. Department of Education through the annual performance report.

At that time, the division decided to award performance dollars based on annual outcomes reported for the primary outcome measures as well as for the secondary outcomes measures. From the first performance awards, given for the 2000-2001 program year, the same amount of money was awarded for primary as for secondary outcomes. Performance awards for 2002-2003 will be distributed in the same way based on the number of primary and secondary outcomes reported for the previous fiscal year. The amount will be determined and communicated to programs after the initial annual performance reports are processed this summer.

What is changing

For outcomes reported for the 2002-2003 program year on the initial annual performance report due July 31, 2003, and on the final annual performance report due November 1, 2003, the amount awarded for the secondary outcomes will be reduced to half the amount awarded for the primary outcomes. The amounts will be determined and communicated to the programs.

Rationale for change

The division of adult education is making this change based on several factors. First, only the primary outcome measures are tracked by the U.S. Department of Education for reports to Congress and by the Indiana Department of Education for the state's adult education report card. Second, it is through achieving the core outcome measures that Indiana may receive incentive funds each year through the Workforce Investment Act. Third, measurement and reporting of secondary outcomes have not been as definitive or consistent across programs as for primary outcomes.

The division believes programs should focus their efforts on the accuracy of tracking and reporting primary outcomes. By offering more money to comprehensive programs for core outcomes while maintaining funding for secondary outcomes, programs are still awarded for increasing their performance levels.