As talk of data increasingly dominates education and employment conversations across the country, 37 states are working to track the employment outcomes of participants in education and workforce programs, according to a new report from the Workforce Data Quality Campaign (WDQC).

WDQC promotes a 13-point state blueprint for inclusive, aligned and market-relevant education and workforce data systems that identifies key features of high-quality data infrastructure to provide useful information for policymakers, educators, employers and more. NASDCTEc is a WDQC partner.

The report surveyed 40 states and the District of Columbia about their progress implementing the 13 indicators including:

• Expanding use of labor market information;
• Assessing employment outcomes;
• Counting industry-recognized credentials;
• Including all students and pathways; and
• Ensuring data access and appropriate use.

The results found a majority of states had achieved or were progressing toward establishing cross-agency councils to oversee statewide data collection, capturing employment outcomes such as graduates’ employment status and cross-state data sharing, and creating scorecards for students and workers. More than half of states, however, reported not having starting initiatives related to industry-recognized credentials such as increasing the range of credentials being counted or developing a process for industry validation of credentials.

WDQC highlighted several standout states such as Utah, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina and Maine. Be sure to check out the report for many more outstanding state examples.

WDQC will host a webinar on Thursday, Nov. 6, to discuss the report and highlight the work being done to connect and use workforce data in Utah and Indiana.

In Case You Missed It:

Check out new research from Burning Glass, Education Development Center and more!

• “Moving the Goalposts: How Demand for a Bachelor’s Degree is Reshaping the Workforce,” Burning Glass Technologies;
• New series from Education Development Center on teacher externships and a survey of CTE trends and challenges;
• A 50-state policy analysis, “Blueprint for College Readiness,” from Education Commission of the States;
• A Florida study of 84,000 public high school seniors to determine outcomes for CTE concentrators and nonconcentrators, CNA Corporation; and
• A web-based tool from RTI International that pulls community college data from national, state and local sources into one place for, “The Completion Arch.”

Andrea Zimmermann, State Policy Associate