Moving Success From the Shadows: Data Systems That Link Education and Workforce Outcomes

The need for better data on the performance of higher education has become a major focus of education policymakers, and this has been reflected in federal legislation. Community colleges are appropriately held accountable for the workforce outcomes of their students, but the data that are gathered to evaluate those outcomes must reflect the post-college occupational experiences of their students: child-care providers, engineers, nurses, general contractors, and members of the armed forces. To better understand the current state of linkages between education and workforce outcomes, in this report, the authors examine the following issues: 1. The assumptions federal legislation makes about linkages between education and workforce outcomes; 2. The data needed to document those outcomes; and 3. How well current data collection systems capture the workforce outcomes of educational pursuits.