POST certifies and manages mandated and elective training courses. Presently there are 5,805 certified training courses.  Over time, instructional design and presentation has evolved to accommodate a better educated and discriminating audience.  In the past, POST established a Quality Assessment process. However, because of several budget cutbacks, financial resources could not be secured to maintain this function. The last effort was abandoned in 2004-05, when the Department of Finance ceased an allocation that enabled POST to perform this critical function.

As part of its Strategic Plan, POST recognized that course and instructor evaluations have been neglected and moved to develop a training evaluation program that assesses course quality and instructor performance. During FY 2010-11 POST met with subject matter experts to identify course and instructor performance dimensions and observable behaviors to develop evaluation forms and scoring methodologies.  New course and instructor evaluation rubrics were developed to assess instructor performance and the quality of POST-certified courses. A new Course/Instructor Evaluator course was developed and piloted to train managers and evaluators in the use of the forms. These course quality management tools were developed in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, stakeholder organizations, and training presenters throughout the state.

Pilot testing of the new evaluation rubrics began in August 2011. There have been approximately 20 course and instructor evaluations to date. Courses used for the pilot test were randomly selected from the POST Course Catalog. The training presenters were contacted in advance, and cooperated with POST evaluators to test the new forms in their courses. A course review consists of assessment of the lesson material, observation of the entire course, a debriefing with the Course Coordinator to report observations, and preparation of a short, but complete classroom assessment report for POST staff. 

The goals of this Quality Assessment program are to:

• Improve the quality and effectiveness of law enforcement training courses;
• Examine training courses in a systematic and comprehensive manner ; and
• Identify areas in which standards have not been met and assist in making corrections.

Course reviews will enable POST to verify that course quality objectives are met and ensure that the inventory represents the best possible development and delivery of training given the current state of knowledge and resources available. Additionally, the rubrics developed for the review process will be available for use by training managers to evaluate the quality of their own internal training programs.

As part of the Quality Assessment process, POST continues to investigate the application of technology to allow students to evaluate law enforcement training courses. Online student evaluations, submitted through online or mobile phone platforms, could mitigate some of the roadblocks that prevent POST from identifying substandard training. An automated system can be developed to collect course evaluation data and alert POST staff when training courses receive a low aggregate class score, or when an individual student reports deficient training practices. This will, in effect, amount to an “early warning system” which will enable POST staff to detect and rectify training course shortcomings proactively.