Located in:
- III. Operational Planning Elements
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include an Operational Planning Elements section that supports the State’s strategy and the system-wide vision described in Section II(c) above. Unless otherwise noted, all Operational Planning Elements apply to Combined State Plan partner programs included in the plan as well as to core programs. This section must include—
- b. State Operating Systems and Policies
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include a description of the State operating systems and policies that will support the implementation of the State strategy described in section II Strategic Elements. This includes—
- b. State Operating Systems and Policies
III. b. 4. D. Evaluation
Describe how the State will conduct evaluations and research projects on activities under WIOA core programs; how such projects will be coordinated with, and designed in conjunction with, State and local boards and with State agencies responsible for the administration of all respective core programs; and, further, how the projects will be coordinated with the evaluations provided for by the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Education under WIOA.
Current Narrative:
Iowa is committed to developing an evidenced-based workforce system. Evaluation and research projects on activities under the WIOA core programs will be an ongoing process. Each core partner has considerable history in supporting Federal, State and external research and program evaluations. Each core program uses their performance data to measure success or to identify areas of improvement for the implementation of the program.
Iowa has not yet engaged in an evaluation of Title I or Title III workforce activities in the state. We understand and agree that this is an important component of WIOA and are committed to implementing an evaluation process in Iowa during this planning period. As the designated state workforce agency, IWD will utilize the Evaluation Readiness Assessment tool in the Evaluation Toolkit available on WorkforceGPS during PY22. This will enable us to identify our capacity to meet the evaluation requirements of WIOA and develop a strategy to begin evaluation in PY23.
Title II has been an active participant in recent initiatives such as Teaching Skills that Matter and Integrated Education and Training (IET) Bootcamps. These areas of focus were identified as needs for Adult Education and Literacy providers and support the State’s strategies of extending a Future Ready workforce by expanding high quality instruction and IET models across Iowa.
Collectively, data sharing agreements have strengthened the ability of core partners to identify areas of coordination to support policy analysis, research and program transparency (dashboards) such as https://educateiowa.gov/ael-results. State partners have collaborated with one another with grant opportunities, and will look for ways to further establish joint efforts whether specific to grant required program evaluation studies or more broadly envisioned analysis or policy research.