Advocate for Quality Data Collected Across Systems

There are few issues that business can weigh in on with more first hand expertise and know-how than on the importance of good information to ensure results. In an era in which resources are tight and priorities are numerous, business leaders can provide insight from their own organizations and sectors as to why investing in data and technology infrastructure is vital to ensure benchmarking, accountability, transparency, and most of all, continuous improvement.

Building a quality longitudinal data system requires time, money, coordination among the key K-12 and postsecondary stakeholders and technical assistance. Businesses have begun to urge governors and legislators to support funding for better systems – and urge K-12 leaders and postsecondary leaders to collaborate and find ways to link systems – but there is much work still to be done.

Specifically, business leaders can play a major role in advocating on behalf of robust P-20 longitudinal data systems that are coordinated between K-12 and postsecondary systems and collect data from many of the critical points along the education pipeline, such as entering and graduating from high school. These data systems can go a long way towards measuring and improving students' high school and college readiness. 

Yet, in many cases, the data collected and shared among K-12 and higher education are limited to student enrollment numbers, demographics and financial reporting. While a number of states have the ability to match K-12 and postsecondary student records, few have yet to actually link these student-level records. Only 10 states use their higher education student unit record systems to produce regular feedback reports to high schools, reflecting such topics as the schools’ graduated students’ need for remediation, credits earned and grade performance in college.

While there is no doubt that data systems can improve the management of higher education systems and inform other state reporting requirements, the potential uses of these systems – from linking students’ course-taking patterns to remediation enrollment in college, identifying best practices in classroom instruction and tracking students’ success in the workplace – far surpass the basic state and federal reporting requirements that inform much of a state’s use of linked K-12 and higher education data. For example, feedback reports from colleges to high schools can go a long way in identifying the schools that are successfully preparing students for college.

As many states are still laying the groundwork for statewide P-20 longitudinal data systems, there is an opportunity to build comprehensive data systems that extend beyond the education pipeline and include real-world outcomes and connections. As important as it is to connect data from the various points in a student’s education, there is much to be learned from connecting education and employment data to draw connections between a student’s experience in school and success in the workplace. The business community is well-suited to make the case for a robust data system that draws together, at a minimum, K-12, higher education and employment information.

State Examples: Louisiana & Florida

The Louisiana Board of Regents first developed a student unit record system in the 1970s and began sharing data with high schools to provide feedback reports and improve the transition between the two systems. These days, Louisiana’s efforts to compile all education data into a central system are a model for a coordinated state effort. The Louisiana Educational Accountability Data System (LEADS) is an ongoing effort to implement an integrated data management system to support Louisiana’s education information needs and give everyone a more complete and transparent picture of what is going on in Louisiana’s education system. The Louisiana Department of Education is phasing in LEADS over time, but has already integrated multiple data collection systems. The Department of Education now provides student- and school-level information to postsecondary institutions to ease admissions, placement and financial aid eligibility decisions.

The Louisiana Legislature also requires higher education institutions to provide the Department of Education with data on the number of Louisiana high school graduates who immediately go to one of Louisiana’s public colleges or universities, enroll in at least one remedial course and persist in their first semester. These indicators are essential to identify which high schools are doing the best job of preparing students for college and which schools are struggling to equip their students for life after high school.

Florida currently has the most advanced and robust P-20 longitudinal data system in the country. Beyond drawing education and financial data from the state’s public P-12 and two-year and four-year higher education systems (including graduate programs), Florida’s P-20 Education Data Warehouse also contains data from all of the state’s private non-profit higher education institutions, vocational programs, GED participation and adult education programs. The data system even captures data on students enrolled in vocational and training programs that may not award any credits, but are for job-related, continuing education.

The Warehouse also houses many types of data on outcomes, including unemployment, wages, welfare participation, and incarceration status. This allows the state to provide regularly updated reports on the relationship between Florida’s education system, employment trends and social services dependence. Florida’s data system is so comprehensive that the Data Warehouse currently is fielding requests from universities, research organizations and individual researchers and grant makers who all want access to this wealth of student-level data.

DATA DESCRIBING STUDENT OUTCOMES IN FLORIDA