Good afternoon!
Previously we shared recommendations from the Colorado Student Success and Workforce Revitalization Task Force about developing new student success measurements, leveraging statewide grants, and eliminating equity gaps. Today we’re diving into the second recommendation from the Task Force, which is to Enhance Transparency of Postsecondary and Workforce Data.
Each of the six recommendations play an important role, but to quote the Task Force report, “No meaningful change in education and workforce outcomes is possible without improved and publicly accessible data.” The first recommended step towards this goal is to create a Statewide Student Success Data Interface, primarily focused on sharing accessible data with higher education leaders and policymakers in their efforts to increase student success. Next, making this database publicly available would give students seeking postsecondary credentials access to information that would empower them to make decisions connected to their learning and earning potential. Overall the goal of the Statewide Student Success Data Interface is to eliminate equity gaps while increasing educational attainment across the state in a transparent and accessible manner. By making data transparent to and actionable for users ranging from potential students to institutional leaders and policymakers, pathways to postsecondary credentials in Colorado could be easier to access, earn, and connect learners to well-paying jobs.
Reimaging how higher education leaders and students interact with postsecondary credentials is not a new concept for Colorado. In 2020, Colorado joined the National Skills Coalition’s Quality Postsecondary Credentials State Policy Academy. This inaugural cohort of six states focused on defining quality non-degree credentials, developing a policy agenda to increase credential attainment, and creating data policies to support these efforts. Colorado used this opportunity to accelerate the work of the state’s data trust and to begin to centralize credentials offered across the state into one system as part of Credential Engine’s Credential Registry. A centralized repository is not only convenient, but necessary to increase transparency as the demand for credentials continues to increase as a pathway to greater economic opportunities.
In recent national news, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the College Transparency Act (CTA) as part of the America COMPETES Act. The CTA would require colleges to collect and submit disaggregated student access, retention, and success data to the U.S. Department of Education, which would better inform learners, industry leaders, and policymakers on postgraduate outcomes by college and degree programs. National higher education reform network Complete College America is one of the many organizations applauding this move, noting students “deserve a more transparent system that will help them make better-informed decisions when selecting a college or university to meet their educational and career goals.”
How would you - as an individual, higher education leader, advocate or policy maker - make use of a Statewide Student Success Data Interface? Share your thoughts with us, here.
Wishing you all a great week,
Alison
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