By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Two minutes
Providing college and career readiness advising without the benefit of understanding previous classes’ outcomes is roughly equivalent to driving and navigating a car blindfolded. Far too few district and school leaders have timely, easy access to their students’ postsecondary outcomes following high school graduation. States are key to taking off the blindfold. They have more ready access to student-level
postsecondary outcomes data, benefit from economies of scale in analyzing it, and can share widely to districts, schools, charter networks, and other stakeholders who can use that data to drive postsecondary advising for students.
A new brief and series of case studies highlights what states can (and should) do to support stakeholders with postsecondary outcomes data and offers three examples
of states who have done just that. This handy resource come from Quality Information Partners (QIP), which conducted a series of focus groups with state agencies on how they use and share
postsecondary outcomes data, how they’d like to, and what’s keeping them from their ideal.
National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members, especially those working in or with the K-12 sector, should bookmark this resource for their case making about how and why states should change their postsecondary data sharing practices.
NCAN was pleased to be able to partner with QIP to help produce this body of work.
Three state-level case studies also illuminate that these best practices aren’t purely hypothetical. We have great examples of states using and sharing postsecondary outcomes data, and more should follow suit. These include:
Michigan's MI School Data Portal: Michigan’s MI School Data portal provide
postsecondary outcomes data visualizations and reports at the district, school, or college levels. The portal highlights the importance of stakeholder collaboration and specific uses of postsecondary outcomes data for decision-making, enhancing
programs, empowering educators, and driving statewide education goals.
Minnesota's Regional Coaching Network: Minnesota’s Regional Coaching Network helps educators access, interpret, and use data
to improve postsecondary and workforce outcomes for their students.
North Carolina's Targeted Support for Districts: This case study highlights the training and technical assistance provided to district
and school staff and examples of how school counselors use data to map student pathways and trajectories to identify trends, patterns, and potential areas for improvement in career and college readiness and postsecondary outcomes.
NCAN is, and has been, a strong proponent of expanding the postsecondary outcomes data available to practitioners and policymakers. Far too often our understanding of where students matriculate and how they do when they get there is fueled by hunches
and anecdata versus stronger evidence. This series from QIP is its own form of stronger evidence that states have a role to play in provisioning these data, frequently but only inconsistently do so across the country, and model specific practices
that are adaptable and adoptable for their peers. Our hope is that these bright spots will become the norm as more states understand this data’s considerable value.
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