In late February, close to 200 higher education, state agency data leaders, policy analysts, funders, and researchers gathered virtually to explore best practices and new opportunities for connecting postsecondary success data with workforce data. Through a series of presentations and demonstrations, participants learned about how state agencies and institutions are sharing data—both internally and across states—to improve understanding, advocacy, and decision-making at the nexus of higher education and workforce development. The Postsecondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Coalition convened the showcase to highlight the work of its members, particularly their approaches to using, sharing, and consuming data.

The PSEO Coalition is an emerging player in higher education and workforce development policy, helping states connect their higher education data with students’ workforce outcomes after graduation. Through a partnership with the US Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, the coalition provides state decision-makers with a comprehensive view of post-college employment and earnings for all college graduates in their state, regardless of where they live.

Coalition members—primarily state higher education agencies or systems—share data on their college graduates with the Census Bureau, which then aggregates and reports graduates’ employment outcomes at the program level (e.g., bachelor’s degree in accounting) for each participating institution. Census publishes these program outcomes online, making them accessible to coalition members and the public. These PSEO data offer valuable insights, helping users:

  • Understand the average earnings of graduates in specific programs,
  • Compare program outcomes across institutions and states,
  • Track whether graduates stay in-state or move elsewhere, and
  • Identify the industries in which graduates are employed.

The PSEO data provide valuable insights for policymakers, educators, workforce development agencies, and prospective students and their families. State decision-makers can use these insights to better align postsecondary education with workforce and economic development needs. Additionally, students can make more informed choices about colleges and programs by understanding real employment trends and their future potential earnings.

The showcase’s opening plenary speaker was Dr. Ben Boggs, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development, who spoke about Missouri’s approach to integrating workforce development with post-secondary education. Dr. Boggs highlighted his state’s P20W longitudinal data system which tracks pathways from K12 to higher education and into the workforce. Joining PSEO data from the Census with the analyses of state data expands the reporting he can provide to state policymakers and other stakeholders. He notes, “PSEO allows us to answer questions we can’t easily answer with our own data.” Dr. Boggs ended his presentation praising the work of the PSEO coalition members and looking forward to the opportunities it presents, saying, “… it takes good data to make good policy.”

The opening plenary was followed by a series of presentations from three states that were highlighted in Strada’s State Opportunity Index for accomplishments in sharing and improving education and workforce data. Representatives from Texas, Colorado, and Minnesota discussed how data sharing between state agencies enabled them to connect their state higher education data to their own state’s K12 and employment data to make these data available to policymakers, researchers, and the public. For example, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board offers several different levels of access to the integrated data through secure dashboards with more limited access and public access via Texas Talent Trajectory. The Colorado Department of Higher Education emphasized the importance of using integrated data to assist stakeholders in understanding the return on investment for higher education through the Colorado Minimum Value Threshold, a formula that indicates earnings relative to the costs of college attendance. A highlight of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education’s use of data is the ability to compare employment outcomes for K12 graduates and college graduates. A throughline of all three state presentations was the importance and value of using data to explain the return on investment for higher education.

State higher education leaders from Hawaii and Iowa also had the opportunity to discuss how their states are using PSEO data to provide interstate insights with PSEO Director Gina Johnson. Leaders from both states highlighted how their respective audiences drive the way they use and present higher education and workforce data; Hawaii incorporates a universal design approach to their dashboards and data products, while Iowa strove to create a single page of information that could be provided directly to incoming students. Both states found value in the PSEO data for its ability to track the geographic flows of graduates’ post-college activities. The national scope of the data helped to normalize salaries to account for the differences in cost of living and associated wages between states, insights that would not be available with only state-specific data.

The virtual showcase culminated in a series of presentations from the two student interns working directly with PSEO data to create interactive dashboards focused on post-graduation earnings and cost-of-living comparisons. The interns overcame the challenges of managing and integrating large datasets as well as nuanced levels of aggregation to provide meaningful and accessible data visualizations. The two different projects aim to combine PSEO data with other public data sets, like IPEDS, to provide actionable information to policymakers, institutions, and students. One of the projects specifically focused on illustrating post-college earnings differentiated by state, institutional type, and degree. The other enabled users to compare median earnings against living wage information for specific geographic regions and metropolitan areas.

A unifying theme of the showcase was the value of connecting data from multiple sources to address challenges, create opportunities, and inform stakeholders. In her closing remarks, Director Johnson noted, “We all have unique questions. We all are in unique environments. Every state is different, even a system within a state is different than another system within a state. …so we’re thinking about how we can collectively wrestle with these questions and help each other.” Connecting data beyond individual agency and single state borders provides a more complete picture of the higher education to workforce transition for all stakeholders, underlining the importance of the PSEO Coalition’s efforts.