Led by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) in partnership with data analytics firm Resultant, the project will be the first of its kind in the district. It will integrate data from preschool through post-secondary education and employment.
Monica Dodge, executive director of the Office of Education Through Employment Pathways (ETEP), said earlier investments in technology and workforce education helped lay the groundwork for the new project. Most recently, Mayor Muriel Bowser set aside $23 million in the 2025 budget to improve career and technical high school education.
“The district recognized that there was an opportunity to really delve deeper in understanding outcomes and the impact of that work,” Dodge said.
For the technical work of creating the data system, like aggregating data, consolidating student records and creating dashboards and visualizations, the DME’s office awarded a $2.9 million contract to Resultant. Curt Merlau, senior director of Resultant’s education department, said that in addition to common challenges with siloed data, the longitudinal data system will require interstate data sharing for students who attend college or work outside of D.C. to get important information on wages and post-secondary credentials.
“That data helps us understand what is working for whom and where,” he said.
When working with large volumes of student data, Dodge said it’s important to ground the work in community priorities, which requires outreach.
“We’ve engaged with hundreds of district stakeholders, including families, students, school leaders and community partners, to understand their priorities,” she said.
These engagements revealed a strong public demand for transparency and a focus on equity. As such, the ETEP data system team has identified specific populations to prioritize in its analysis, including students with disabilities, English learners and students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. This focus helped shape the three-year research agenda and insights they hope to gain from the data, Dodge said.
She added that once data makes the effectiveness of education and workforce programs in the district more transparent, parents can make informed decisions on what opportunities best meet their needs, employers can make decisions about how they develop local talent pipelines, and community partners can identify opportunities to serve youth communities.
The ETEP initiative reflects a growing policy trend in states and localities across the U.S. to attempt to link education data to workforce outcomes, with the goal of better preparing students for the job market. Longitudinal data systems in Maryland and California informed D.C.’s approach, Dodge said.
“We have certainly learned from those systems,” she said. “I think at the same time, D.C. has been quite unique in terms of both the scope of data that we are bringing together across the education, workforce, social services and juvenile justice partners, as well as the extent to which we are really focused on delivering value and transparency for the public.”
National organizations like the Data Quality Campaign have highlighted public demand for accessible, actionable data on education and employment.
A recent Data Quality Campaign poll found 97 percent of early childhood administrators said data significantly improved their decision-making processes. The same poll found that existing systems, like government agencies to which schools are required to report data, do not necessarily provide useful feedback.
Additionally, the poll found that training on how to use data is a key component, a point Merlau shared as well.
“Data moves at the speed of trust,” he said.
Dodge said D.C. has long prioritized being data driven in policy and program investment and has seen promising signs that their stakeholders trust data. Earlier this year, the DME’s office published a research brief with data on access to career and technical education programs that has been cited by community members and leaders in public testimony before the D.C. Council, Dodge said.
As the city embarks on its research agenda through fiscal year 2027, Dodge and Merlau both said that longitudinal data systems like this one will likely become more popular.
“As you look nationally, you’re going to see more and more states want and demand linking this workforce data to education data to ensure we are preparing our students for jobs that will allow them to thrive,” Merlau said.
