| The Florida school district under study has lost 12% of the funding for the workforce education program since the implementation of performance funding by the State of Florida. The study was developed to use qualitative evaluation methodology to explore the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the workforce education program of one of the largest school districts in South Florida for the period, Fiscal Year 2002-03 thru 2006-07. The chosen methodology included a performance evaluation descriptive analysis utilizing a non-experimental design. The qualitative data was collected based on a purposive sampling of specific selected personnel through the use of a questionnaire and interviews. In addition, quantitative data was collected, including expenditures, outputs, outcomes, full time equivalents (FTEs), enrollments, and the direct cost of the district's workforce education program. As part of the analysis of the archival data, the productivity, the efficiency, and effectiveness of the program were calculated. The school district's workforce education program improved significantly after the implementation of performance-based funding. The findings of the program evaluation regarding productivity revealed that the district has been able to retain the students who enroll in the programs with a rate that is 100% greater than the State of Florida. Regarding program efficiency, the results revealed that the school district's costs per FTE and outputs were higher than the State of Florida's. However, regarding cost-effectiveness, the results of this study revealed that the district as a whole is underperforming. Some of the underperforming indicators included the decline in services provided, less number of completers and outputs, and the cost of outcomes in the district, which was significantly higher than the cost of outcomes in the State of Florida. Based on the results of these analyses, recommendations were made. The recommendations included the establishment of a Workforce Education Department to streamline the workforce education program, the development of workforce education in-service workshops for operational leaders and district management, and the transfer of fiscal operations to the Budget Department. |
