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Coleridge Initiative Challenge Winners Use Data to Inform Policy

The Coleridge Initiative’s Democratizing Our Data Challenge will fund the efforts of 10 winning teams from 21 government agencies and seven universities to expand projects related to education and employment outcomes.

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The Coleridge Initiative, a nonprofit focused on helping governments use data more effectively, announced the winners of its Democratizing Our Data Challenge this week.

The challenge was created to build on government work using data to inform education and workforce policy. Ten teams from 21 government agencies and seven universities have been funded to move forward in developing projects related to people entering or re-entering the workforce.

Winners were categorized by Transitions in Education to Workforce; The Value of Credentials in the Workforce; Unemployment to Reemployment Portals and Building Better Understanding and Use of K-12 Data.

The first round of the challenge was launched in September 2021, with the second round beginning March 15. Those submitting proposals for the second round of the challenge must first submit a letter of intent by June 15.

The organization recognized and wanted to support the work states were doing in the space of evidence-based policymaking and data-driven decisions, which is how the challenge originated, said Julia Lane, chief scientist of the Coleridge Initiative, and author of the book Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto.

An important piece of this is data collection related to underrepresented minorities, something that is currently lacking, Lane explained. She cited research about the U.S. Census Bureau’s undercounting minorities, and how that significantly impacts how federal funding is distributed.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” she stated. “So we need other voices.”

While the organization’s funding is helping get these projects from vision to implementation, there is still a significant lack of resources for state labor agencies, Lane said, and those gaps have only become more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the first round winners — Expanding the Multi-State Postsecondary Report Dashboard: Collaborative Education to Workforce Flows — is a collaboration led by the Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) to expand on the Multi-State Postsecondary Report for insight on workforce outcomes.

The project started in an effort to fill the data gap regarding cross-state workforce flows of post-secondary graduates, according to KYSTATS Executive Director Jessica Cunningham. This work created the opportunity to extend the work of KYSTATS into other states — specifically Indiana and Tennessee — to build on the network of data that exists.

“I think the key point of where this project is going is to be able to gain insight into issues and barriers for post-secondary credentialing and into the workforce,” Cunningham said.

In addition to expanding the postsecondary report, the project also involves an advisory committee to discuss the measurements in that report, how certain groups will be defined and what employment metrics will be used. Its goal is to expand on the early version of the report with quality employment metrics.

She underlined the importance of trying to understand the equity issues and barriers along that pipeline, such as affordability, which has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A key component of the challenge is that the submitted proposals must use data that is, or will be, hosted in the Coleridge Initiative’s Administrative Data Research Facility (ADRF). The ADRF, established by the U.S. Census Bureau with funding from the Office of Management and Budget, is a cloud-based platform that promotes collaboration between agencies in a secure environment.

As Cunningham explained, KYSTATS' work would not have been possible without the ADRF, because states being able to share data in a safe space is critical to the work.

On March 30 and March 31, 2022, there will be a national meeting titled Multi-state Data Collaboratives: From Projects to Products to Practice. This event will highlight the work of the 10 winning teams, including project summaries and more in-depth conversations.

“I hope our congressional representatives will see the value of investing in states, and all the potential projects and products that can happen [if] given a chance,” Lane said of the event.

Cunningham believes that if every state could explore this data on post-secondary employment outcomes, it could help inform evidence-based policy for better outcomes. And she thinks additional states will join this effort following the national meeting.
Julia Edinger is a staff writer for Government Technology. She has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Toledo and has since worked in publishing and media. She's currently located in Southern California.