Board reviews TAP performance dashboard proposal and readies WIOA combined plan for public comment

Board staff presented a proposed TAP performance dashboard and walked the board through the draft federal WIOA combined plan mid‑cycle update, emphasizing a compressed schedule for public comment and submission.

Research director Dave Wallace described a two‑tier dashboard: high‑level "landscape" indicators and system‑level measures. "We actually the group actually has landed on a proposal for 6 metrics for the landscape indicators...the self sufficiency index and state GDP, labor force participation rate, unemployment rate, employment rate, and median wage," Wallace said. He also outlined possible system measures including participant counts, training completions, measurable skill gain, credential attainment and job retention, and flagged the data challenge of deduplicating individuals across programs: "we we need to do a lot of work to get, you know, that information...we have to work with partners and we have to work on data sharing agreements so that we can do that."

Wallace said the work group aims to stand up the dashboard by August and will include a timeline of steps taken over the past year. Board members asked that the dashboard's system measures include customized training, industry‑recognized credentials and short‑term elements that may be eligible for workforce Pell; Wallace said staff are considering these measures and requested points of contact for data coordination.

Emily Persky, the board's TAP plan manager, detailed the combined WIOA plan. She described the plan's structure (sections 1–5 cover system elements; sections 6–7 include program plans) and noted federal agencies are encouraging closer alignment between WIOA and Perkins this cycle. Persky told the board the draft plan is scheduled to be posted for public comment at the end of the month and that staff aim to finalize notifications "by the end of next week" or "Monday, March 2." She said the staff goal is to have the plan submitted to the Department of Labor by mid‑April and noted it is common for USDOL to ask follow‑up questions before approval.

Persky asked board members to share the public comment notice with their networks and offered to incorporate feedback where appropriate. Staff said they will share public feedback prior to the April 3 board meeting and expect to seek board approval to submit the plan at that meeting.