Kansas City, Kan. serves about 21,000 students in the K-12 education system. Roughly eighty percent of these students go on to work toward a degree in higher education across 32 institutions in Kansas.
How can Kansas measure the value of its investment in those students whether through their employment or the contributions they make as employees to the state and municipal economies? The solution: a state longitudinal data system (SLDS) that tracks students from early education through higher education and into employment.
Kansas has an SLDS that allows the state to know the average wage for students of Kansas’ education systems.
Why is this important? An SLDS allows analysis and identification of specific policy levers for state and municipal leaders in ways that data at the federal level cannot, because it relies on surveys or samples. SLDS data are based on actual individuals. SLDS follow careful and detailed regulations on privacy to ensure that individuals are protected, but also capitalize on data already being collected, providing efficiencies and supporting connection across systems.
SLDS systems rely on data from multiple departments or systems within the state, developed through coordination around governance, infrastructure and staffing. Most commonly, the SLDS incorporates K-12, postsecondary and workforce data with some states including early childhood as well.
The Status of SLDS in Your State
Not all states have an SLDS, and there are varying levels of support for their development from state leaders. According to the Education Commission of the States, 33 states have an SLDS with nine under construction. Thirty-four of these states have created their SLDS through statute or legislation, ensuring longevity and commitment to the long-term availability of the system. Another 12 has initiated the SLDS through the federal SLDS grant. All 50 states and DC have received a federal grant for the SLDS.
As a municipal leader, you can check to see the status of your SLDS. Then you can…
Ideally, once a state has a robust SLDS, there are opportunities for collaborating with neighbor states to gather regional understandings on economic mobility, labor market trends, postsecondary success and more.
Take, for example, the students educated in Kansas City, Kansas, who then go across the river to Kansas City, Mo. to work. Currently, Kansas has no way to identify the way these regional residents contribute to their regional economy, as they are not in their state. However, if the Missouri and Kansas SLDS systems could align, then both states could work together to identify regional impacts above and beyond local and state-level impacts of their investments in education.
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