4 new education and workforce data tools at your fingertips
This is a preview of the Texas 2036 newsletter that dives into our new data tools . To receive this weekly highlight of our work, sign up here.
4 New Data Tools at Your Fingertips
Advanced Courses: Improving Student Access 🧐
What to Know: Thousands of Texas students have little or no access to advanced courses in middle school and high school, especially in rural communities.
- Drawing on Texas Education Agency data, our dashboard shows disparities in advanced course offerings, such as Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate for 11th and 12th graders and Algebra I for 7th and 8th graders, across school districts.
By the Numbers:
- Roughly 40,000 students in grades 11 and 12 attend districts that do not offer any advanced A.P./I.B. courses.
- 41% of Texas school districts do not offer any advanced A.P./I.B. courses.
- About 80,000 students in grades 11 and 12 attend districts that offer none or fewer than four advanced A.P./I.B. courses.
What We’re Watching: Today, the Texas Commission on Virtual Education will meet to finalize its recommendations to the Texas legislature.
- Texas 2036 testified this summer about how innovative approaches, such as self-paced, competency-based and blended learning, can be part of a solution to closing course access gaps for rural students and increasing access to work-based learning opportunities.
📌 Explore the new Texas Advanced Coursetaking Dashboard to learn more about these statewide trends.
Job Credentials: Evolving with the Workforce 🧑🏭
Credentials 101: This term refers to an evolving array of degrees, workforce-aligned certifications, licenses, badges and apprenticeships.
- Texas is estimated to have more than 24,000 different credentials available in the state.
What’s Ahead: New employer-led credentials programs continue to grow and have the potential to play a vital role in training the workforce of the future.
- State education and workforce agencies are building a credential library that includes data about the credentials being offered by public state institutions or education and training programs in Texas.
Our Work: Texas 2036’s new dashboard complements state efforts by compiling information about in-demand credentials offered by private issuers and is the first of its kind in Texas for private credentials.
- Through a partnership with Credential Engine, we have done outreach to employers, including Google, Dell, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, about the value in sharing data about their credentials publicly.
📌 Check out the new Privately-Issued Credentials Initiative and find out how private entities can add credentials.
Coming Soon: New Interactive Data Resources 🚀
Two education-and-workforce data tools are coming your way in early 2023.
Postsecondary Outcomes Exploration Tool: POET will provide a look at the education-to-workforce pathways of Texas students by comparing trends in coursework and post-graduation outcomes across districts and schools.
- Users will be able to see how students’ course selection has impacted rates of entering post-secondary education and earning a living wage.
Community College Finance Simulator: To support the Texas Commission on Community College Finance, we rolled out a beta version of the simulator that shows how state funding is allocated to Texas’ 50 community college systems and the financial impacts of potential changes to current policies.
- The enhanced version will model the Commission’s recommendations to the State Legislature, allowing users to see how community colleges might benefit from proposed reforms.
In Case You Missed It ⬇️
Strategic Framework: Our recently launched dashboard includes dynamic data sets to measure the progress toward our six goals intended to strengthen education and workforce systems.
- A strong education system today ensures a strong workforce and a prosperous economy tomorrow.
From health coverage access to virtual learning experiences, you told us where you stand on the issues impacting our state.
Got more to say? We want to hear from you!
Check out the Texas 2036 Action Center to join the conversation.