Accountability Requirements
Congress made accountability for results a central focus of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV or the Act), setting out new performance accountability requirements for states and local programs.
Under Perkins IV, states are required to report annually:
- 13 core indicators of performance
- Disaggregated data on the performance of students in special population categories described in the law, as well as gender, race, and ethnicity
- Effectiveness of their tech-prep programs; therefore, states must report data for tech-prep students by each sub-indicator separately, as well as 11 other indicators described in the law.
In accordance with the requirements of Perkins IV, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) negotiates annual performance levels on each of the core indicators with each state and then holds them accountable for achieving results. Each state submits its performance data in a Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) by December 31 each year and must implement a program improvement plan if it fails to meet at least 90% of one or more of its performance levels. A state may face tougher sanctions under Perkins IV if it fails to implement an improvement plan and fails to meet a single indicator by the 90% threshold for three consecutive years.