A new report from the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) calls on states to ensure their data systems enable access to information that helps young people navigate postsecondary transitions into education or the workforce.
Released March 27, the resource, Powering Potential: Using Data to Support Postsecondary Access, Completion, and Return on Investment, outlines steps to improve postsecondary access, completion and return on investment with data.
“As uncertainty about federal education data grows, it is critically important that states continue to develop statewide longitudinal data systems capable of providing timely, personalized insights that illuminate pathways to success and address barriers to persistence,” said Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign. “High-quality, connected K–12, postsecondary, and workforce data empowers leaders, institutions, and researchers to identify and offer data-driven support at critical junctures to students who need it. When data tools are built to illuminate the links between education choices and future career options and earnings, students are better equipped to make informed decisions that maximize their long-term economic mobility.”
State data systems that provide tailored, user-friendly insights can better aid students in navigating the pivotal transitions from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce, and that leaders have the necessary information to support them.
However, the report found that throughout the country, everyone from policymakers and education officials; institutional decisionmakers such as K–12 and postsecondary institution leaders and workforce and training providers; counselors and direct service providers; to students and their families often lack access to data that could show options and guide decision-making.
Agency-level data is often disconnected from other sectors’ data. “As a result, individual source systems alone cannot provide longitudinal data nor connect student information with postgraduation outcomes as is possible with a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS),” the report states. “SLDSs bring together individual-level data from across different sectors — early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and the workforce — over time. These systems enable data users to access and use data to support students on their journeys to and through postsecondary education and to ensure that students get a return on their investment.”
Once data has been brought together within SLDSs, state leaders can create tools to facilitate and support students by increasing access to postsecondary education — especially for students from historically underserved communities — as well as their ability to complete their higher education journey and attain a degree.
The report includes a host of recommended actions that states can take to develop and improve SLDSs and to proactively use data in cooperation with postsecondary institutions. Among them:
- Use data to evaluate institutional and programmatic outcomes by analyzing data on student outcomes, such as graduation rates, job placement and student loan debt, and invest in what works while using data to highlight areas with room for improvement.
- Codify cross-agency governance structures including K–12, higher education, workforce and human services in state law to ensure collaboration, transparency and longevity across changes in leadership.
- Develop tools that deliver the right data to the right audiences, ensuring that the information is timely and useful.
- Engage the community in data decisions. California’s Cradle-to-Career Data System was highlighted as an example demonstrating how including community members in every stage of the design process can build trust and create systems that reflect the needs of diverse communities.
