From Projects to Products to Impact

Collaboratives help states advance and accelerate data product innovation —a non-linear process that includes ideation; development of priority areas of focus; projects; product development; product adaptation and application; circulation to other agencies and states; and continued product improvement and expansion.
- Products are tools or applications that use data to answer questions critical to society. They provide intelligence that helps policymakers, program administrators, or customers improve processes, strategies, programs, and decisions.
- Projects are research and development efforts where collaborative members test new ideas or adapt or expand existing products.
Collaborative Products
Below are two examples of exploratory collaborative projects that have grown into collaborative data products that are informing practice among state, local, and regional leaders. The two products are the Multi-State Post-Secondary Report and the Unemployment to Reemployment Portal.
Plans are underway to add data from Indiana and Tennessee to the Postsecondary Outcomes Dashboard. The states of New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia recently received a Democratizing our Data Challenge grant through the Coleridge Initiative to bring the Multi-state Postsecondary Dashboard to the Eastern States Longitudinal Data Collaborative. The state of Ohio also received a Democratizing our Data Challenge grant to incorporate workforce credentials and data on postsecondary “non-completers” into the dashboard.
The Unemployment to Reemployment Portal has been replicated by the states of Indiana, Missouri, and Tennessee. The states of Texas and Ohio created UI data tool inspired by the Illinois tool. Planned expansions include the states of Wisconsin and Arkansas. Illinois has incorporated unemployment spell behavior into the portal and is planning enhancements to include Title I and Title III program participants and timely measures of reemployment activity. In 2021, moreover, USDOL/ETA partnered with Coleridge Initiative and Illinois to conduct a 3-month national training with 120 participants representing 30 states.
Pipeline Projects
The multi-state data collaborative ecosystem supports or is supported by several “innovation sandboxes” that enable accelerated data project and product development. Value is created as networks of government staff from various programs, functions, and states ideate together and discover opportunities to access training, peer support, technical assistance, or use of microdata and a secure data facility.
State agency leaders across the country are driving the emergence and sustainability of multi-state data collaboratives. This work is being supported by NASWA, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), the Coleridge Initiative, and other partners and funders. This webpage is a joint partner effort, led by state agency leaders, to provide public information about the collaboratives, including their activities and products.