"Data bill" advancing in the House aims to better prepare students for Tennessee's evolving economy

Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced legislation Wednesday that supporters say will help the state do a better job connecting students with the actual jobs available in their communities.That bill, sponsored by Representative Chris Hurt, R-Halls, would require the state to create a publicly available dashboard that includes data employers and students could use to see how well various instructional programs are working in Tennessee.The dashboard would include information on:

• College going and secondary completion rates by high school.
• College going and workforce outcome by CTE program of study.
• Postsecondary completion rates and workforce outcomes by institution.
• Postsecondary completion rates and workforce outcomes by instructional program.

“This bill helps create a strategic alignment across education and the workforce to ensure the state has a clear understanding of how education is or is not meeting the needs of Tennessee’s rapidly evolving economy,” said Hurt. “These dashboards will increase transparency for policymakers, business leaders, educators, and communities.”The legislation originally advanced to the House Education Administration Committee last year but Hurt chose to take it off notice to continue working on it.The Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) has been a major supporter of the concept to help address the state’s rapidly evolving economy where there are just 56 available workers for every 100 jobs in the state.SCORE Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Aleah Guthrie told committee members the state is already collecting this data. She says making it easier to access will allow the information to more effectively show what educational programs are working and what ones need tweaking.“Right now, you can request this data from the Department of Finance and Administration, and so there’s a process to request it but what we’re hoping is by making public dashboards accessible, that it would be actionable by policy makers, business leaders, chambers of commerce, educators,” said Guthrie. “I think about school counselors in a high school setting or college counselors to be able to say these are the programs that if you focus on that you can expect these types of outcomes on average.”SCORE says of the 40 states that collect this type of workforce data, Tennessee is one of only three that don’t provide a publicly facing website to show it.Lawmakers won’t have to look far to see a similar concept in use.The Greater Memphis Chamber provides a public dashboard with educational and employment data for potential employers.Chamber Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President of Workforce Development Amity Schuyler says the dashboard gives Memphis an advantage in the competition for jobs.“We know that our public facing information is no doubt being consumed by businesses and site selectors who then are requesting further information,” said Schuyler. “The grain size of the data that they’re asking about for workforce development has been incredibly instrumental in keeping the conversations going, in keeping Memphis in contention for new business attraction and ultimately final decision.”Representative Hurts’ bill now heads to the House Government Operations Committee for a vote likely later this month.