State Higher Education Executive Officers Multi-State Longitudinal Data Exchange WICHE’s 4-State Pilot 2011 National Forum – PPI Committee Hans Peter L’Orange State Higher Education Executive Officers

State Higher Education Executive Officers 2 General Background Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) managed WA, OR, ID, HI Includes K-12, postsecondary and labor representatives Focus on the necessary architecture, governance structures, and standard reporting while complying with applicable privacy laws 7/26/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 3 Goals “Where did they go and what did they do when they got there?” Improving policy and practice relating to human capital development Crossing institutional and state lines Provide information about workforce outcomes 1/20/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 4 Addressing Issues That Matter K-12: Information on college performance and workforce outcomes can inform development of K- 12 curriculum and college/career preparedness Postsecondary: Information on job placement and earnings can inform effectiveness of programs and instruction and their alignment to current and future workforce needs Workforce: Understanding prior education and prior training can help identify skill gaps and equity gaps. Also helps to understand how incumbent workers access education to advance their careers. 1/20/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 5 Broader Issues for Policy Makers Skills development through education and training for various populations in a state Gaps in education for various demographic and socio-economic groups Insight into education and employment patterns across state lines given high mobility Additional knowledge about outcomes of students in a regional context 1/20/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 6 Five Types of Policy Questions 1. What proportion of students beginning college in Oregon earn a bachelor’s degree in six years? 2. What proportion of students completing high school in Hawaii enroll in college in that state within a year?

State Higher Education Executive Officers 7 Five Types of Policy Questions 3. What proportion of high school graduates in Washington complete college within 10 years and are earning $35,000 or more per year? 4. What proportion of students who were enrolled in college in Idaho in a given year are enrolled in Washington, Oregon, or Hawaii the next year?

State Higher Education Executive Officers 8 Five Types of Policy Questions 5. What proportion of students who complete high school in Washington also complete at least an associate’s degree and are employed in the aeronautics industry in the state or in Idaho, Oregon, or Hawaii?

State Higher Education Executive Officers 9 Common Issues in SLDS Development (and, by extension, WICHE’s multistate exchange project) Governance Confidentiality (FERPA) Common data element definitions Effective use Transactional vs. research purposes Balancing “good enough” and “perfect” information Accountability vs. formative evaluation Short-term vs. long-term analytical frames and the availability of data going back in time Limitations of workforce information And then, adding multiple states to the mix: – Unequal sophistication among state data systems – Participation is altogether voluntary = governance challenges

State Higher Education Executive Officers 10 Governance Challenges and Lessons Education and labor don’t have shared history of working together within a state Building trust and common understanding takes time Necessary to bring stakeholders together within each state Every entity needs to have a voice and to recognize the value they add to the process 1/20/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 11 Seven Basic, Not-Necessarily- Sequential Steps, With Variations 1.Link public education records within each state. 2.Enhance education records with external data to capture out-of-state and nonpublic activity. 3.Link to workforce records. 4.Merge records across states. 5.Anonymize the data. 6.Analyze and report in the aggregate. 7.Return an enhanced data file to originating states.

State Higher Education Executive Officers 12 Memorandum of Understanding Scope and Research Questions Justification and Authority Description of the Data Process for Exchanging Data Limitation on Access and Use Physical Safeguards Notice of Nondisclosure Amendments, Duration, Termination Data Element Specifications 1/20/2011

State Higher Education Executive Officers 13 Lessons So Far Real value comes from incorporating workforce information – But linking is hard due to SSNs and privacy rules (cultures) – Concern over too much focus on initial employment Genuine appetite for linked data among participating states – But some fear… (how are the data going to be used?) – At what level of detail? (some want identifiable, some not) Need to balance the expectations of partnering state agencies relative to what data for what purposes (operational vs. research) A big contribution can be made just by helping reduce the gaps in what is knowable, i.e., how big is the loss of individual data across sectors really?