Grace* is a high school freshman interested in becoming a nurse. She and her family have many questions about how to make that happen. What courses should she take? Should she stay at her local high school or attend the district’s career and technical education center? If she did the latter and graduated as a certified nursing assistant, how much money would she make?
Maybe Grace should go to community college after high school and become an RN. That’s a good option, but is it better than the four-year Bachelor program at a state university? Do graduates from these programs get jobs in Iowa or do they leave the state? What about the military?
Grace and her parents have a lot of questions – important ones. The good news is that the answers are out there. The bad news is they are hard to find, buried deep in college graduation reports, payroll records, and databases kept by obscure public agencies.
Liberating this data and making it both available and useful to the public and policymakers is the big idea behind efforts to modernize “Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems."
Liberating this data and making it both available and useful to the public and policymakers is the big idea behind efforts to modernize “Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems,” arguably the most innovative public policy push that you’ve probably never heard of.
The premise is simple: Better decisions require better information. That’s why states are investing in integrated databases that allow researchers and policymakers to dig into questions like Grace’s and better understand student trajectories and progress from public preschool through high school and into college or the workforce.
Those states with comprehensive and robust data systems – called SLDS for short – are integrated with those from schools, colleges, health care, social services, and public safety agencies, allowing researchers to explore all sorts of variables and effects that influence a young person’s life trajectory.
Through a series of grants, the federal government has given states $900 million since 2005 to build or improve these data systems, with state education agencies often taking the lead. All 50 states have received funding from the National Center for Education Statistics to build or expand an SLDS, but only a portion have a fully functioning system that incorporates pre-K, K-12, postsecondary, and workforce data, according to the Education Commission of the States.
There’s new legislation in both the House and the Senate that would provide new funding for SLDS improvements across the country.
How Can States Use Data Systems To Inform Public Policy?
Many states are struggling to maintain and improve outdated and fragmented data systems due primarily to inadequate federal and state funding. Data systems from various state agencies can’t talk to one another, and too often the data isn’t accessible to the educators and researchers who could put it to use. That’s the big hurdle that the SLDS grants aim to help states overcome.
Why does it matter? Simply, large, comprehensive datasets can help leaders and the public better understand complex problems, such as how career and technical education affect early-career salaries. Or, whether there’s a relationship between student literacy and a family’s need for social service programs. These systems can also help state agencies better track and understand how their policy and spending decisions impact local services.
Large, comprehensive datasets can help leaders and the public better understand complex problems, such as how career and technical education affect early-career salaries.
An example of this can be found in Michigan. A report by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University found 1,351 teacher positions were unfilled during the 2022–23 school year, although the report’s authors acknowledged the actual number is probably higher than that. A state’s inability to get a handle on how many teachers it needs, the types of teachers it needs, and where it needs them means many students are not getting the instruction or services they deserve. In a grant application Michigan submitted just last year for SLDS funding, the state acknowledged that its “outdated” data systems have left it “unable … to understand and address our state’s current teacher shortage.”
One issue that has bedeviled states and school districts for years is the quality of the preparation new teachers receive in college and other programs before starting their careers. Teacher quality is one of the most important factors that can drive student achievement, yet because there are so many options for teacher training – from state teacher colleges and private universities to “residency” programs and so-called “alternative-certification” routes – trying to assess where good teachers come from can be a fool’s errand without solid longitudinal data behind the analysis.
That’s the idea behind South Carolina’s effort to create the South Carolina Educator Information Pipeline. When completed, the project would extend the state’s current data collection and reporting process to include educator and post-secondary student information from a variety of sources. State officials aim to consolidate the teacher data with that from colleges and universities to evaluate the effectiveness of the state’s teacher preparation programs.
Currently, this data lives in three separate systems making such an analysis nearly impossible. Colleges, policymakers, and prospective teachers “have a vested interest in understanding preparation program capacity, program effectiveness, and educator supply and demand,” South Carolina’s grant application states. “Many of the necessary elements to develop that understanding currently exist in the siloed systems.”
SLDSs Are Fueling Collaborations Among Researchers And Agencies
While longitudinal data systems have great potential to inform public policy, they are, after all, just compilations of data stored electronically. To make use of them, researchers, educators, and analysts need access to them. To facilitate that, several states are using federal grants to bring together new groups of experts able to conduct novel, in-depth analyses, allowing for evidence-based policymaking.
Several states are using federal grants to bring together new groups of experts able to conduct novel, in-depth analyses, allowing for evidence-based policymaking.
Connecticut, Indiana, and Virginia are creating research collaboratives – involving partnerships between universities, state agencies, and other research institutions – to mine their longitudinal data systems for insights to better understand shortcomings in their education systems. They’ll also use the data to search for possible solutions and innovations to systemic challenges.
Connecticut created P20 WIN, its longitudinal data system, in 2014, but it wasn’t until the COVID pandemic that the state convened a research collaborative capable of fully utilizing the data collected from 10 agencies. Now, the state has plans to expand that research collaborative – called the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaborative – to broaden the data accessibility to include homelessness, child welfare, and juvenile justice. State officials hope that the research collaborative and expanded SLDS will help establish a stronger foundation for evidence-based policymaking in the state.
Using SLDS Dashboards To Help Parents And Students Understand School Options
It’s not just policymakers and school systems that stand to benefit from longitudinal data systems. Some states are using their data to create reports, dashboards, and visualizations to help parents and students better understand their educational options at key decision points.
Systems like Iowa’s “Beyond K12” integrate educational and workforce data, enabling personalized student learning plans and tracking pathways from K-12 through college and into careers. By aligning data across these stages, students receive targeted support and guidance tailored to their educational and career goals, improving their readiness for postsecondary opportunities.
For example, high school students in Iowa who are interested in pursuing careers in welding can use the Beyond K12 dashboard to compare community college programs. The dashboard filters allow them to see which school had the highest graduation rates for welders, how many of them were working as welders after graduation, and which graduates from which schools were earning the most money welding. Similar data is also available for more than two dozen fields of study at Iowa’s three public universities.
This kind of data can be invaluable to young people who are weighing their post-secondary education options, expenses, and the long-term returns of different career fields.
Rhode Island is enhancing its Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System to create the RI Talent Dashboard. This tool will display college and career outcomes by pathway and several subgroups, making information accessible to students and families. It aims to help students and their families make informed decisions regarding postsecondary pathways and careers. Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana have good dashboards that allow students, parents, and the public to make informed decisions about their educational choices.
Conclusion
Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems represent a critical, yet often overlooked, tool in public policy, with the potential to transform education and workforce outcomes. By integrating disparate data sources, these systems allow analysts to probe and better understand complex issues, such as educational attainment, career readiness, and teacher quality. As more states expand their SLDS capabilities, they are also creating public-facing dashboards, other tools, and research collaboratives that make this data accessible to teachers, students, and families.
As more states expand their SLDS capabilities, they are also creating public-facing dashboards, other tools, and research collaboratives that make this data accessible to teachers, students, and families.
However, realizing the full potential of SLDSs requires continuous investment, modernization, and collaboration across agencies and research institutions. Investing in these systems is a vital step toward more evidence-based policymaking and the transparency everyone – from policy leaders to community members – needs for better decision-making.
*Grace is a fictional student.
