Catalyzing DC’s New Education Through Employment Data System
Two blogs ago, we discussed DC’s Talent Pipeline Enabling Conditions, which are the most important elements that must be in place to achieve a strong, diverse, local talent pipeline here in DC. Readers shared a real interest in understanding what specific examples of bringing the Enabling Conditions to life in DC looked like, and as a result of that feedback, we used our last blog to highlight the first example: our Hire Local DC Sector Partnership work. In this blog, we will showcase a second example of how CityWorks DC has seeded essential enabling conditions work - the DC Education through Employment Data System (ETEP) - and how it has continued to evolve and thrive under the ownership of the DC Deputy Mayor for Education’s Office through the creation of the Education through Employment Pathways Office (The ETEP Office) under the leadership of Executive Director Monica Dodge.
Framing the Challenge
When developing DC’s Talent Pipeline Enabling Conditions, CityWorks DC and our stakeholders intentionally placed a focus on data and goals at the very top of the list. Before I was in my current role at CityWorks DC, I worked for 10 years in the DC government, leading postsecondary and career education work at DC Public Schools and at our State Education Agency, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). From day one, it troubled me that while we were able to track at a high level of precision our graduates’ college enrollment, persistence, and completion outcomes, we really were flying blind on career outcomes. We couldn’t hold ourselves to account on what was arguably the most important outcome of all: whether DC’s graduates were employed and able to afford a life for themselves and their family in our very expensive city. It felt imperative to get this information so that we could shine a light on what we were doing well and - more likely - what still needed to be done to ensure we were truly preparing our residents for success in life.
Year after year, I was told that accomplishing this was just too hard, due to a lack of information, ability to gain data, and/or willingness of partners to take on this work.
By 2021, however, this mindset had shifted under the leadership of Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) Paul Kihn, who was clear-eyed about the need for an ETEP data system and how it could connect education, training, and employment data to show us where improvement was needed. At that point, Jennie Niles and I could see that the stars were aligning - the right leaders across government, business, education, and philanthropy were in the right place at the right time with just enough wind in our sails to make possible an ETEP system happen - so we leapt at the chance to partner with the DME’s office and other key stakeholders to tackle such a fundamental enabling condition.
Making the Case
Starting in early 2021, CityWorks DC collaborated with the D.C. Policy Center to produce a series of publications that shined a bright, objective, well-informed light on why we needed a system that would allow us to track the early career outcomes of DC youth and young adults. In its brief The Case for Creating a Local Talent Pipeline in the District of Columbia, the D.C. Policy Center leveraged data from the American Community Survey to show that “although the region’s ability to attract and retain growing businesses is deeply connected to the depth of talent ready move from anywhere in the world, this leaves out current residents—especially those furthest away from opportunity—in benefiting from the prosperity created by economic activity.”
A subsequent D.C. Policy Center paper was released in November 2021, Measuring Early Career Outcomes in D.C., did an exceptional and thorough job detailing why an education through employment data system is necessary for DC, showcasing how other jurisdictions built and executed such systems - and how those systems improved their programs, resources, and outcomes - and proposing next steps and priorities the city could take to establish a system here in DC. And in December 2021, D.C. Policy Center’s DC Voices: Using Information on Early Career Outcomes shared student and college and career school and program staff perspectives on how improved early career outcomes data could support in college and career planning.
In the meantime, CityWorks DC also partnered with Bain & Company and CityBridge Education to conduct the Alumni Early Career Outcome Survey solely focused on DC. Approximately 1,200 DC Public and Public Charter School alumni completed the survey answering questions about their early career outcomes as well as their feelings of fulfillment from their work, financial stability, and optimism about their future. A high-level summary of the survey’s findings can be found in the D.C. Policy Center Brief D.C. High School Alumni Reflections on Their Early Career Outcomes. One of the most significant takeaways from this work was that schools and local education agencies had an incredible appetite to understand the employment and earnings data of their alumni, noting how burdensome and inefficient it was for them to try to gather such data individually. In addition to setting baseline data for DC’s alumni, the survey connected early career outcomes to high school experiences which showed the importance of building career assets while in high school—and having better data to track results.
Throughout the development of these publications and data collection efforts, we and our partners engaged closely with city leadership. We were able to answer critical questions they had about the viability and potential capabilities of an education through an employment data system, and connected city leaders with colleagues developing statewide data systems across the country from whom they could learn.
The stars fully aligned when the District’s leadership directly linked the need for a better understanding of youth career outcomes with Mayor Bowser’s education priority to reimagine high school and put all youth on a path to college and career success. They saw that without this data there was a major blind spot in terms of evaluating the long-term impact of programming, and particularly whether DC public school alumni were truly obtaining career success that translated into financial stability. The results from DC’s Early Career Outcomes survey emphasized this need given how many of the survey respondents reported not yet feeling financially stable.
Working with Experts
While city leadership felt empowered by seeing what other jurisdictions had done and were planning to do with their ETEP systems, they also recognized the importance of building out the capacity to do this work. Because creating a new data system would be such a significant and complex undertaking, city leadership wanted to understand how to best pursue its design and implementation prior to submitting a new budget request. CityWorks DC convinced funders, including the Walton Family Foundation, to invest in a team of national experts to build out technology specs, governance plans, project plan roadmaps, and other deliverables for the proposed system. Some experts, such as the incredible team at Watershed Advisors, were so excited about the project that they even volunteered their time to help DC develop an ambitious, thoughtful, and tailored plan.
Building Coalitions
From day one, it was important to all of us involved in the development of the system that it be ultimately used by District families so they can make informed decisions about the education and workforce programs that best fit their needs - and by employers so they can have the data they need to build and sustain a local talent pipeline. We and the city’s leadership collaborated with key coalitions including PAVE and Hire Local DC to ensure families and employers respectively had ample opportunities to proactively provide input on what they wanted the system to be able to do for them and inform them, as well as provide feedback about questions regarding system design and capabilities. We were also thrilled to see the newly formed DC Postsecondary Success Collaborative feature the ETEP and early career outcomes during the plenary convening of its inaugural summit. In the Spring of 2024 it all came together with employers and families alike testifying before the DC Council in support of further funding the ETEP.
Launching the New ETEP Office
Following the first phase of funding by philanthropic partners, the Office of Education Through Employment Pathways was launched in fall of 2023 with a $3.8M two-year investment in the District’s local FY24 budget. Here are just some of the office’s milestones from its first 10 months:
Hired an Executive Director and Analyst to lead the Office’s work.
Launched its governing body, the Education Through Employment Policy Board, featuring agency leaders from more than 12 agencies who spoke powerfully about the impact of this work on the District’s future goals. The Policy Board includes leadership from across the Pre-K-12, higher education, public workforce, human services, juvenile justice, and foster care systems.
Launched a Public Stakeholder Advisory Board, including family, school and community stakeholders. This board received more than 30 applications, demonstrating the strong interest in DC in informing this work.
Developed and received unanimous agency approval of an initial research agenda and mission and vision which was then released for public comment.The Office has engaged more than 200 public stakeholders on their feedback to date including input from families, educators, community partners, and the broader education community.
Published its first research brief focused on access to Career and Technical Education courses and alignment with high-wage occupations. This brief has already been the catalyst for discussions about expanded opportunities related to CTE among schools and families.
Collaborated closely with the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity in prioritizing a data equity lens for this work. A Mathematica spotlight of DC’s work noted that DC is “positioned to be a leader in applying a data equity approach.”
In FY25, the Office will focus on building the data system itself and producing internal analysis and insights for city government agencies to leverage and from which to learn.he ETEP Office’s plans for FY26 will focus on creating external-facing reports and tools that will equip and empower the city’s families, students, employers, and other stakeholders to make smarter and more informed choices. Unfortunately, funding for external-facing reports and tools was cut from the current budget, but we remain optimistic and committed that funds will be reinstated to achieve these desired outcomes.
Sharing Our Learnings
Sharing our learnings is a priority of CityWorks DC - both what we’ve learned from experts and what we are learning with our partners. As a part of this priority, we participated in the JFF Building Equitable Pathways Community of Practice, along with 13 peer organizations; as a result of this opportunity, we were able to connect with and learn from our colleagues from around the country as well as national leaders including the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness. Sarah Bennett, Director at JFF, and Allison Forbes, Vice President for Research at CREC, were incredible thought partners during this time. These two articles (here and here) are a byproduct of that collaborative work.
I would also be incredibly remiss if I didn’t give the most enthusiastic shout-out to Paige Kowalski, Executive Vice President of the Data Quality Campaign. Paige and the DQC are a font of knowledge on ETEPs, the legislation and engagement that is needed to establish them, the work that can happen as a result of them, and the nuts and bolts that make the best ETEPs successful. We continue to lean heavily on Paige to push us to be our best in DC’s ETEP.
The D.C. Policy Center are champions of this work and will be publishing a report in November sharing a landscape analysis of what career asset building opportunities are offered to high-school aged youth across the city. We are so grateful to Yesim Sayin, Chelsea Coffin, and Hannah Mason for their continued leadership and support.
At two recent conferences - JFF’s Horizons Conference and the Education Commission of the States National Forum on Education Policy, I had the chance to moderate panels with Monica Dodge of the ETEP Office, Antwanye Ford, CEO of Enlightened, Inc. and Board Chair of the DC Workforce Investment Council, and Brienne Bellavita and Claire Voorhees of The Walton Family Foundation, at which we talked about how leaders from philanthropy, non-profit, industry, and local government collaborated to establish DC’s Education Through Employment Data System. It was incredible to be able to share what we learned to enthusiastic, full rooms of leaders from states and regions all over the country. There is so much interest and momentum happening right now.
Collaborating Matters
At the recent Horizon’s panel discussion, Brienne Bellavita, Senior Program Officer at the Walton Family Foundation talked about why the Foundation decided to invest in the city’s efforts to build an Education through Employment Data system. “Seeing the strong partnerships CityWorks DC had in place - the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, engaged employers with the Federal City Council, and organizations like the DC Policy Center and PAVE at the table - made it clear that supporting this work was the right decision.”
At CityWorks DC, we know that no solo entity can make system changes alone. But through thoughtful partnership, deep collaboration, and good timing with city leaders, employers, educators, community members, and philanthropists, we can catalyze the launching of the city’s Education Through Employment Pathways and have it serve as an excellent example of how many stakeholders came together to make something once thought impossible happen. We are stronger and better, together.