Narrative: III. b. 6. A. i.

TWC operates a collection of different IT systems to capture participant information, services, and outcomes. Many of these systems were legacy systems that were transfered to TWC as programs were moved to the agency. TWC supports efforts to increase efficiency while maintaining quality levels of service through judicious use of resources and adhering to policy (local, state, and federal). To these ends, TWC is currently evaluating workforce system solutions in other states to better unite the case management and job search functions of our programs. As successful systems are identified, TWC and Texas Workforce Solutions look to demo their delivery with Boards. While TWC is exploring ways to either integrate or replace these systems, such changes would not be completed during the life of this plan.

The Texas workforce system has been on the leading edge of performance measurement, evaluation, and accountability within the national workforce system for over a decade. In 2003, TWC implemented a set of systemwide performance measures that successfully improved employer engagement and effectiveness serving employers. In 2005, TWC embraced the Common Measures and applied them to all state and federally funded employment and training programs using common Periods of Participation and integrated reporting. TWC also obtained a performance measure waiver that gave TWC flexibility in selecting performance measures to contract with Boards so that the system could break down program siloes and focus on integrated services. In 2006, TWC became the first state to file a WISPR. Several times over the next nine years, TWC redeveloped the WISPR for DOL in order to simplify the system and add additional functionality, each time mentoring other states interested in integrated reporting with or without the WISPR.

TWC envisions leveraging its experience in building an integrated reporting system to support Common Measures and the WISPR to build a similar system to perform integrated reporting for WIOA and for reports required by WIOA §116. Customer data from TWC’s case management systems, as well as other data such as UI wage records, will be extracted and combined to produce customer-centric, rather than program-centric, records to be used in reporting. The envisioned platform will allow integration of customer records across all six core programs as well as a variety of other partner programs to provide a holistic view of each customer, their services, and their outcomes.

These efforts will eventually lead to the implementation of a data warehouse and analytics platform that will support oversight, consumer education, and decision-making at all levels of the workforce system. The integrated warehouse may also be a means to deliver some of the benefits that an integrated case management system is envisioned as providing. This model will allow TWC to work to develop advanced statistical models that can help identify not only who most needs services but to also help prescribe the types of services that may be most effective for a given customer based on what we learn from having served similarly situated customers in the past.

Although the implementation of WIOA measures will bring challenges to TWC, the shift from measures that focused primarily on first and third quarters after Exit to measures that focus on second and fourth quarters after Exit is not expected to be overly complicated. However, there could be significant complications if the final definitions of Participant and Exit largely match those proposed in the WIOA NPRM.

TWC’s existing reporting system is used for both federal and state performance reporting. The system creates common, integrated PoPs, which begin upon receipt of a qualifying service from any state or federally funded employment and training program (provided via self-service or through staff-assisted), and end when the Participant goes 90 days without receipt of qualifying services (via self-service or staff-assisted), along with no planned gap-in-service. Because TWC’s state measures loosely match federal measures, TWC has been able to use the same Periods of Participation for both state and federal performance reporting, since they start and end the same way.

If the final WIOA definitions of Participant and Exit change from the current “WIA” definitions, as proposed, TWC will likely operate two separate performance reporting systems for the same customers. Two systems will increase costs as well as the burden in managing and overseeing WIOA programs—both at the state and local level—as the same customer may be measured several different ways during the year (with an Exit from staff-assisted services triggering one set of measures and then an Exit from self-services weeks or months later triggering another set of measures).

In addition to the reporting required under WIOA §116(d), TWC will be actively monitoring and evaluating the Texas workforce system under WIOA §116(e). Evaluation efforts will include applying both federal- and state-prescribed performance measures, in addition to continually developing and testing other measures. Consistent with WIOA §116(i), TWC will be using data obtained from other states to implement this part of TWC’s Combined State Plan.