The Education Amendments of 1976, Public Law 94-482, which revised the Vocational Education Act (VEA) of 1963, introduced major new requirements for the evaluation of federally funded vocational education programs. This paper describes the activities stimulated by these evaluation requirements and shows how evaluation results are used to revise and improve programs. However, since policy intentions--in this case, program revision and improvement--are not realized instantaneously, the paper examines a number of intervening steps in the implementation process before considering outcomes. Before the outcomes can be realized, for example, the message from Congress must be transmitted and implemented at federal, state, and local levels. Another purpose of this paper is to describe the way in which this message was transmitted through the Office of Education to the states and finally to the local level. (KC)