The Vocational Education Act of 1963 (P.L. 88-210) specified that funded programs undergo periodic and regular evaluation to determine if participants are being adequately prepared for employment. A quasi-experimental method for objectively evaluating pilot programs is to use appropriate reference groups in lieu of the traditional experimental control group dyad. Appropriate reference groups may consist of similar people without instruction in the vocation, successful practitioners of the vocation, and students in regular vocational high school programs. Evaluation instruments should provide performance measures of those abilities and knowledges required by the vocation under study. Instrument design should duly consider whether the evaluation is summative or formative, that is, for administrative evaluation of the total program or for internal evaluation. When the behavioral performance-reference groups model was tested in a summative evaluation of pilot Commercial Food Service programs in New Jersey, graduates of regular vocational high school programs scored significantly higher than graduates of pilot programs. Although further study is necessary, the initial findings question the adequacy of training in pilot programs. The evaluation model can be readily used in summative evaluations. (CH)