WICHE’s Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange project held its first meeting in late October in Portland, OR. The goal of the pilot project, supported by a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and involving four states (Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington), is to build a “human capital development data system” that would provide policy-relevant information for how states acquire human capital through importation, as well as through education, including insights into the characteristics of individuals who are the most and least mobile. This first working meeting focused on determining the policy questions the exchange would ask, the data needed to answer those questions, how to share data, and how the exchange will be governed and operate. Representatives from the other three regional compacts (the Southern Regional Education Board, Midwestern Higher Education Compact, and New England Board of Higher Education) attended to learn how they might work with their own states on similar initiatives, as did representatives from the National Student Clearinghouse.

December 2010  | Share this on Twitter | Post this on Facebook