A situational assessment is conducted by obtaining a comprehensive description of the job or task responsibilities and selecting a worker who is performing at a competitive level on the job to be assessed. A criterion based assessment system allows the evaluator to determine the level of performance at which a worker must function in order to be successful in the employment setting. The Criteria for Acceptable Performance (CAP) procedure can help evaluators to determine needed criteria for acceptance performance on academic tasks. The evaluator can use information obtained in the job analysis together with the CAP to ascertain both site specificity and how a worker would perform essential job tasks standard to the identified job title. An example is developed to demonstrate the recommended combination of job analysis and behavior analysis approaches incorporating the CAP. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 13 references