Penn State is exploring using unemployment insurance data and administrative record linkage to track student employment and earnings outcomes after graduation. This could help address pressure to evaluate post-college metrics like loan repayment. The briefing discusses how other states like Ohio and Florida successfully link education and workforce data through a broker system. Potential partners for Penn State are also identified within Pennsylvania and at other universities with relevant expertise.

1. Assessing Student
Workforce Status Before,
During, & After Enrollment
A briefing by:
David Passmore
http://train.ed.psu.edu
dlp@psu.edu
814.863.2583
— Use of Administrative Records —

2. Question for you…
What does
Penn State do?

3.  Needs and responses.
 Opportunity: Unemployment Insurance data.
 Linkage processes.
 Emerging interest within Pennsylvania and by
Pennsylvania higher education.
 Potential partners in & out of Pennsylvania.

4. Needs &
Responses

5.  Mounting pressure to track post-collegiate
employment and earnings, especially in light of loan
debt.
 Obama administration proposed creating a federal
college ratings system that includes “Outcomes, such
as…graduate earnings.”
 Many universities have responded with online and
mail survey approaches.

6. Not new, but seldom used in PA
 Many analysts in
most states link
records collected
and organized by
federal/state
agencies to
administer their
programs to
institutional data.
 Almost never in
Pennsylvania,
however.

7. Opportunity:
Unemployment
Insurance Data

8. Unemployment
Insurance Wage File
Administrative use is to
qualify eligibility for
unemployment insurance
benefits.
Records include:
• Total earnings;
• Employment status;
• Location;
• Industry of employment.
Quarterly by SS number.

9. Linkage
Processes

10. Three agents in the process
Provider
Broker
User

11. Social Security Number is the key
• Obtains UI records
• CWIA
Provider
• Hashes records
• Is CWIA now, but
could be PSU
Broker • Obtains student
records & receives
UI matched records
• PSU
User

12. Social Security Number is the key
• Obtains UI records
• CWIA
Provider
• Hashes records
• Is CWIA now, but
could be PSU
Broker • Obtains student
records & receives
UI matched records
• PSU
User

13. Summary, not micro–, data to user
• Obtains UI records
• CWIA
Provider
• Hashes records
• Is CWIA now, but
could be PSU
Broker • Obtains student
records & receives
UI matched records
• PSU
User

14. Summary, not micro–, data to user
• Obtains UI records
• CWIA
Provider
• Hashes records
• Is CWIA now, but
could be PSU
Broker • Obtains student
records & receives
UI matched records
• PSU
User
Unless the user also
is the broker

15. Emerging Interest
Within PA and by PA
Higher Education

16. 2012 U.S. Chamber of
Commerce PA higher ed
report card:
Transparency &
Accountability –
“overall very low
performance in this area
because the commonwealth
does not measure student
learning outcomes or track
graduate performance in the
labor market.”
http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/reportcard/pennsylvania/

17. Was Chancellor of State
University System of
Florida
Florida is the acknowledged
state leader in use of
administrative record
linkages to assess PK-20
education and various social
and correctional programs.
PSSHE could move to take
leadership for PA linkages.
The “broker” has power.
Frank T. Brogan
PSSHE Chancellor

18. Potential partners in &
out of Pennsylvania

19. Potential partners within Pennsylvania
 Sue Mukherjee,
Executive Director,
Program Alignment &
Policy Development,
Office of the Chancellor,
PA’s State System of
Higher Education,
717.720.4201,
smukherjee@passhe.edu
 Brad Keen, economist,
Center for Workforce
Information & Analysis,
Pennsylvania
Department of Labor &
Industry, 717.346.9387,
brkeen@pa.gov
Is the point person for administrative
record linkages within CWIA, which is
Pennsylvania’s Unemployment
Insurance record provider.Was CWIA director who was hired by
PSSHE to improve use of labor market
data.

20. Potential partners outside Pennsylvania
 David Stevens, Executive
Director, Jacob France
Institute, University of
Baltimore,
http://www.jacob-
france-institute.org
,410.837.4729,
dstevens@ubalt.edu
 Joshua Hawley, Professor
and Director of Ohio
Education Research,
John Glenn School of
Public Affairs, Ohio State,
614.247.8140,
hawley.32@osu.edu
Directs Ohio Longitudinal Data
Archive using longitudinal data
covering workforce and education
systems.
Is recognized as a thought leader and
an exemplary practitioner in the use
of administrative record linkages to
track outcomes of educational,
economic, and social programs.

21. From the Ohio Education
Research Center:
Ohio State became the
“broker” and the “user” of UI
and other records.
See:
http://www.measures.workforce.ohio.gov/I
nfo#4821-methodology
Circos diagram of the links
between Ohio educational
programs and employment

22. From the Ohio Education
Research Center:
Ohio State created
dashboards for the Ohio
Governor’s Office of
Workforce Transformation
for the entire state, regions,
counties, and providers.
See:
http://reports.workforce.test.ohio.gov/
2011 performance indicators for
Bowling Green State University

23. Assessing Student
Workforce Status Before,
During, & After Enrollment
A briefing by:
David Passmore
http://train.ed.psu.edu
dlp@psu.edu
814.863.2583
— Use of Administrative Records —