Building a Regional View of Learner and Workforce Outcomes

Education and labor markets don’t stop at state borders. Students may attend college in one state and build their careers in another, while employers increasingly draw talent from across regions. Yet states often lack the connected data needed to understand these pathways and how they shape regional economies.

With support from ECMC Foundation, Coleridge is developing the Regional Learner Data Collaborative (RLDC), a multi-state initiative focused on the Appalachian and Delta regions. The two-year project will bring states together to strengthen connections among postsecondary education, workforce, and economic development data and build a foundation for understanding learner and worker mobility across state lines.

Project Goals

The RLDC will work with participating states to:

• Establish a sustainable governance framework for managing, standardizing, and securely sharing administrative data across states.
• Identify shared research and policy questions related to education, workforce outcomes, labor-market needs, and economic development.
• Build state capacity to analyze linked administrative data through Coleridge’s Applied Data Analytics training.
• Develop data-product prototypes that demonstrate how regional insights can inform program, policy, and economic-development decisions.
• Create a roadmap and practical resources that can support expansion to additional Appalachian and Delta states.

From Data to Regional Insight

The project will use Coleridge’s secure Administrative Data Research Facility (ADRF) to establish the infrastructure for multi-state analysis. By connecting postsecondary and workforce data, participating states can better understand questions such as where graduates go after completing their education, which industries employ them, and how education and training programs align with changing regional labor-market demand.

Ultimately, the RLDC aims to give state leaders a more complete picture of the connections among learning, work, mobility, and regional economic opportunity—providing stronger evidence to guide investments that support learners, workers, and communities across Appalachia and the Delta.