The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices launched a Data and Non-Degree Credentials Learning Community to support states and territories in advancing their data infrastructure improvement projects. This Learning Community brought together state teams – including governors’ office representatives, state higher education and community college executives, and data officers – to collaborate on scaling data modernization strategies for the evaluation of non-degree credentials.
Increasingly, states were looking to leverage their data systems to drive evidence-based decision-making, particularly in evaluating education and workforce programs. Concurrently, short-term credentials were gaining traction as viable education and career advancement options. However, credential validation remained inconsistent, especially for non-baccalaureate degree programs.
Through this initiative, the NGA Center worked with state teams over a period of twelve months to explore how Governors could maximize their state data systems to evaluate the quality of non-degree credential programs.
- Related project: State Longitudinal Data Ecosystem
