CHAPTER III

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION BENCHMARKS

The Focus -- Best Educated and Prepared Workforce

Through Oregon Shines and the benchmarks, Oregon adopted the commitment to achieving the best educated and prepared workforce in the nation by the year 2000 and a workforce equal to any in the world by 2010. Building on Oregon's ongoing efforts to revamp the education and workforce development system, the Oregon Workforce Option was developed as a cluster of the overall federal-state-local Oregon Option.

The Oregon Workforce Option is a collaborative intergovernmental, interagency, and cross sectoral partnership which began shortly after the Option was officially launched in December 1994.(1) The partners include:

• Federal: Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services (from Washington and regional offices) and the National Performance Review

• State: Oregon Workforce Quality Council, Departments of Education (including the Office of Community College Services), Economic Development (including the Job Training Partnership Act Administration), Employment, and Human Resources (including the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Adult and Family Services Division), Bureau of Labor and Industries, the State System of Higher Education, and Oregon Women Work

• Local/Regional: Representatives from Oregon's Regional Workforce Quality Councils. The Regional Councils include partners from business, labor, community based organizations, and local offices of state agencies

The partnership's aim is to achieve the Oregon workforce vision through a performance-based, locally-driven, integrated, and customer-centered system of employment and training services.(2) The partners seek to:

• improve flexibility in designing and managing a more integrated system by reducing or eliminating federal- and state-imposed barriers

• enhance accountability for results by shifting away from an over-reliance on detailed regulations and creating greater accountability for specific, measurable benchmarks and performance measures.(3) These performance goals would exceed current performance measures and increase the quality of services

• measure and report progress at both the state and regional levels toward achievement of the performance measures and benchmarks

Since April 1995, the Oregon Workforce Option's efforts have focused on six workforce development and education benchmarks. Recognizing differing needs among the diverse populations that are served by the strategy, separate benchmarks were proposed for the emerging workforce (e.g., in-school and out-of-school youth) and the transitional workforce (e.g., displaced workers and under- and unemployed adults). These benchmarks are listed below.

Oregon Option Work Force Cluster Benchmarks

Each of these six workforce benchmarks have baseline levels and target goals in the Oregon Benchmarks. As of July 1996, however, the Workforce Option partners have not yet explicitly adopted these as targets for either the state or regional/local levels.(4) In part, this reflects the partners' commitment to engaging a broader group of local and regional representatives before finalizing the benchmarks and performance measures.(5) A framework or core set of performance measures was under development by the workforce partners in mid-July 1996. And the partners are developing a workplan for setting benchmark and performance measure targets.

Evolution of Workforce Option Benchmarks

Background: The strategic and analytical frameworks of Oregon Shines and the Oregon Benchmark reports emphasize education and workforce development. These benchmarks set the stage for the Oregon Workforce Option benchmarks.

Oregon Shines issued a clarion call for investments by the public and private sectors to "build a workforce that is the most competent in America by the year 2000, and equal to any in the world by 2010."(6) The benchmark reports translated that commitment into workforce development and education-related goals. For example, about 30 of the benchmarks identified in the first Report to the Legislature (1991) were education and workforce development goals. And the Progress Board has continued that emphasis through subsequent benchmark reports in 1993 and 1995.

Formal legislative action has also incorporated this workforce development vision and benchmarks. Legislative acts since 1991 reflect the focus on improving education and workforce development systems in Oregon. These provided the basis for reforming the existing, fragmented system. For example:

• The Workforce Quality Act of 1991 created and staffed the statewide Workforce Quality Council and fifteen Regional Workforce Quality Councils. These councils were directed to design and implement regional strategic plans that complement state policy on workforce development

• The Oregon Educational Reform Act for the 21st Century mandated a restructuring of Oregon's public education system

• The Workforce 2000 Legislation of 1991 & 1993 funded the workforce development system and required education and training agencies to administer a coordinated strategy

• The Key Industries Development and Regional Strategies of 1993 identified 13 industries as key to the state's future, and extended greater flexibility to local regions in designing economic and workforce development strategies.

These statutory and administrative changes and the benchmarks themselves preceded and provided the basis for the development of the Oregon Workforce Option.

Setting Goals: The first quarter of 1995 marked a key point in the development of the Workforce Cluster. At the end of January, the partners organized a working groups to prepare recommendations on benchmarks and performance measures.(7) The Benchmarks/Performance Measures group included participants from federal departments, state agencies, the regional/local level in Oregon, and from across agencies and programs at the federal, state, and local levels.(8) The work group met and prepared recommendations for consideration by the Workforce Option partners. Six criteria guided the work group's efforts:(9)

• the measures should reflect principles imbedded in the current Oregon Benchmarks

• the measures should add value to the effort to make progress against those goals

• the goals should emphasize outcomes (e.g., an increase in the percentage of the population earning above poverty level household incomes) rather than reflecting outputs (e.g., number of dislocated workers completing a training program) or inputs (e.g., level of spending for training programs)

• the benchmarks should support alignment across programs

• the goals should build on existing performance measures

• existing or available data sources should be used where possible

By late March 1995, the group settled on recommending a set of benchmarks that were presented to a larger group of Workforce Option partners at an April 10-11, 1995 working session in Washington, D.C. About a third of that meeting was dedicated to presenting and discussing the proposed benchmarks(10) and, from that point on, they have served as the strategic targets for the initiatives. (Note list of workforce benchmarks on page 24.)

The benchmarks are the glue that links the partners in a common mission. For example, the six benchmarks were incorporated in a "Memorandum of Understanding for Partnership and Implementation of the Oregon Workforce Option." Developed through a meeting of the local, state, and federal partners in December 1995, the Oregon Workforce Option MOU is the framework for developing the partnership.

While the MOU is subject to continuing refinement by the partners, it is being used to guide implementation in Regional Workforce Quality Council regions that have volunteered to pilot this new way of doing business. Under the MOU, for example, the partners are developing performance measures for accountability system on both the statewide and regional levels. In the spring of 1996, a working group assembled a list of almost 150 performance measures entailed in federal and state statutory and program requirements related to education and workforce development. From that list of current performance measures, the group recommended 13 performance measures to the Oregon Workforce Option partners.(11) These core performance measures would be tracked on both a statewide and regional level. Regions could add their own priority performance measures. However, the core performance measures would be used to gauge the progress at both the state and regional levels. As of mid-July 1996, the proposed core performance measures include:

PROPOSED PERFORMANCE MEASURES TO CHART PROGRESS TOWARD ACHIEVEMENT OF BENCHMARKS

Skill Gain

• basic skills gain
• completed additional level of education
• completed a structured work experience
• workplace readiness
• employer investment in workforce development

Employment and Earnings

• employment
• job retention
• earnings

Customer Satisfaction

• customer/client satisfaction
• customer/employer satisfaction

Movement from Public Support to Self-Sufficiency

• caseload reduction
• recidivism -- return to reliance on public support

Cost Effectiveness

• cost effectiveness and return on investment

Evolution of the Oregon Workforce Option Benchmarks

The law creating the Oregon Progress Board required the development of specific benchmarks based on the strategic vision proposed in Oregon Shines. Between 1989 and 1991, benchmarks were adopted, baselines set, and progress against these goals was reported in the three progress reports to the legislature. The chart on the following page summarizes the development and evolution of these benchmarks across the three reports to the legislature. A more detailed review is found in Appendix.

EVOLUTION OF THE OREGON WORKFORCE OPTION BENCHMARKS -- 1991, 1993, 1995 BENCHMARK REPORTS

Observations on the Oregon Workforce Option Benchmarks

Criteria for evaluating the benchmarks from the Oregon Workforce Option and the other two clusters reviewed in this paper are drawn from the principles of the Oregon Option and the methods used to select the Oregon Benchmarks. They include:

• Link to Oregon priorities

• Link to federal priorities

• A focus on outcomes or end results, rather than inputs or outputs

• Engagement of stakeholders at the state, regional, and local levels and endorsement by these stakeholders

• Data availability and appropriateness to permit reliable measurement

• Setting of realistic, but ambitious, future goals

A summary review of the Oregon Workforce Option benchmarks is provided below. The chart on the following page and the Appendices contain additional details.

Link to Oregon Priorities: The three benchmarks for the emerging workforce -- high school completion, attainment of high school skill levels, and participation in school-to-work -- focus on education-related objectives. All three were included as priority or urgent benchmarks. They have also been incorporated in Oregon's 1991 school reform legislation and in the state's School to Work Opportunities Act.

Two of the three transitional workforce benchmarks -- improving household incomes and reemployment of displaced workers -- were also identified as priority benchmarks in most of the biennial reports to the legislature. The third benchmark, increasing the percentage of workers employed full time, is not listed among the Oregon Benchmarks. It was, however, recognized as a goal in the state's workforce initiatives of 1991 and 1993.

Link to Federal Priorities: The three emerging workforce benchmarks reflect federal priorities established in national education reform legislation and in the 1996-2000 Strategic Goals set by the U.S. Department of Education. Benchmarks for the transitional workforce generally reflect the goals of the national Job Training Partnership Act and performance goals of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Employment and Training Administration.

Focus on Outcomes: Two of the three benchmarks for the emerging workforce -- high school completion and participation rates in school to work programs -- focus on outputs and rather than outcomes. The third benchmark, attainment of high school level skills, has an outcome focus. All three of the transitional workforce benchmarks are outcome-oriented goals.

Engagement of and Endorsement by Stakeholders: Stakeholders participated directly in setting the Oregon Workforce Option benchmarks. Five of the six benchmarks are drawn from the Oregon Benchmarks. The Oregon Progress Board completed extensive efforts to engage the public and key stakeholders in setting these goals. The Oregon Workforce Option benchmarks were selected through 3 meetings over the past 16 months that involved partners from the federal, state, and regional/local levels. The benchmarks were also included in the Memorandum of Understanding for Partnership and Implementation of the Oregon Workforce Option drafted by the partners in December 1995.

Data Availability: Four primary sources of data are used to track the workforce development benchmarks. They include:

Oregon Shared Information System:(12) Development of the Shared Information System (SIS) began in late 1991 through a cooperative agreement between ten state agencies. The cooperating agencies included virtually all state-funded employment and training programs. State legislation in 1993 provided additional support for the SIS effort. Through Senate Bill 81, the Legislature directed all state-funded employment and training programs to provide client-level data to the SIS. Also in 1993, the agencies received a state Attorney General's opinion that set conditions for use of Social Security numbers as an identifier for matching across agency and program administrative records.(13) The system was proposed to facilitate the electronic sharing of data across agencies with the goal of improving information used in policymaking, eliminating duplication of data collection, reducing duplication of service delivery, and providing for performance measurement and evaluation. As of mid-1996, the SIS has four main data elements. These include:

• demographic characteristics of the populations served
• community factors
• services received by the customers (e.g., assessment, support services, employability skills training)
• labor market and program outcomes (e.g., employment, wages, completed major level of education, entered additional training)

The plans for development of the SIS include tracking data on customer satisfaction and cost effectiveness.

Oregon Population Survey: A random telephone survey of Oregon households is completed every two years to provide updates of census data necessary to track progress toward the Oregon Benchmarks. Conducted by the state economist or Oregon Progress Board, data to be collected is identified through the collaborative efforts of 10 state agencies. The limited sample size of the survey, however, limits the disaggregation of data at the local level.

Student Testing: Through the Oregon Statewide Assessment, annual testing provides data on students' skills in math, reading, and writing. Data are available from the Statewide Assessment at the individual school level.

Administrative Reports: Data to measure the percentage of high school students enrolled in structured work experiences is provided by Office of Professional Technical Education of the Oregon Department of Education based on information reported by local school districts.

Future Goals: The Oregon Benchmarks Report of 1995 provided target levels for five of the six workforce development benchmarks. (See Chart on the following page or the Appendices for additional details.)

ENDNOTES:

(1) Workforce development was among the three initial areas of focus proposed by state and local officials in Oregon to the federal government in July 1994. The Oregon proposal became the basis for the Oregon Option MOU.

(2) "The Oregon Workforce Option: A Proposal".

(3) "The Oregon Workforce Option Proposal", Oregon Workforce Quality Council.

(4) Conference call of 4/25/96 with Core Oregon Workforce Option Partners.

(5) The efforts underway at the Progress Board to revise or refine the Oregon Benchmarks is another factor. The Progress Board's review may change benchmarks or target levels effecting the Oregon Workforce Option. There is a summary discussion of that process in the introduction section.

(6) Oregon Shines describes the challenges Oregon faces in "prepar(ing) our young adults to enter a skilled and globally-oriented work force ...and build(ing) an economy where knowledge and skill have productive value..." See pages 1 and 12.

(7) "Oregon Option Workforce Development Cluster Meeting", Memo from Lorraine Chang, U.S. Department of Labor, to Federal Workgroup Members, March 30, 1995. In addition to the separate Benchmarks and Performance Measures work group, other work groups focused on the four key areas of Planning, Procurement and Cost Allocation, MIS Reporting and Eligibility, and Child Labor.

(8) The work group included: Cam Preus-Braly, Marc Overbeck, Sharon McFarland, Al Noonan, Debbie Lincoln, Duncan Wyse, Lorraine Chang, Jim Aaron, Steve Aaronson, (Eric Johnson), Karen Greene, Talmira Hill, Jodi Tanner, and Betina Finley. March 29, 1995 Memo from Betina Finley to OWO Work Team Leaders, "Team Assignments, Matrices, and Materials for Washington Meeting". Also, Memo from Betina Finley to Benchmark and Performance Measure Follow Up Team, March 23, 1995, "Meeting Minutes for Thursday, March 23".

(9) Author's notes from April 10-11, 1995 meeting.

(10) Agenda, Oregon/Federal Workforce Cluster, April 10-11, 1995.

(11) See "Performance Measure Table for Workforce Programs", developed by the OWO work group in April 1996.

(12) Information provided by Bryan Conway, Oregon Employment Division, "OWO Performance Measures and SIS", July 31, 1996.

(13) The Attorney General's opinion allows Social Security Numbers to be used as a common identifier only where a client has signed a release form. A common release form was developed and is in use by the agencies.