Corinne’s community-based nonprofit wants to understand the long-term outcomes of students in their community who came from low-income households to improve the nonprofit’s programming to better support students. Luis wants to help state leaders invest in career-readiness programs and employment supports that work for students of all backgrounds. Both are researchers who need data to make their work possible.

Right now, researchers must navigate clunky processes to get the information they need, if they can access it at all. As a result, students, their families, and their communities lack evidence about college and career pathways, and policymakers lack the necessary information to allocate resources to the programs that work. Researchers need access to data to develop these crucial insights for the field. 

State data systems must be designed to provide researchers access to the data they need to produce trusted information that enables people to understand transitions, outcomes, and what works. When this happens, data users from across the education and workforce community—not just researchers—will be able to answer questions and make decisions.

• Understand what data is available and what the data means;
• Conduct their own research;
• Explore and interpret trends across the education and workforce sectors; and
• Answer questions tailored to the needs of their community regardless of whether their questions directly align with the state’s research agenda.

• Evaluate whether research practices are working and generating needed evidence by answering questions about the research;
• Ensure governance regulations, policies, and structures facilitate the use of state longitudinal data systems for research; and
• Get data into the hands of more people who can conduct community-based research.