Similar to how the nation’s Social Security system was created to address income security after the Great Depression, educators, employers, workforce boards and economists have an opportunity to design a similar system for students in need of a long-term solution.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.-- Educational Results Partnership (ERP), a non-profit leader in intersegmental collaboration and data science, has convened a diverse group of national thought leaders to begin developing a new architecture for educational and economic productivity in the United States. The group convened over two and a half days to begin brainstorming solutions to the amount of learning students have lost during the pandemic and the nation’s growing economic inequality. The recommended solution is summarized in ERP’s new paper—EducationalProductivity: A New Architecture Threading the Needle Among Learning, Employment and Economics. Download the paper.
“The goal of the Institute is providing a forum for bringing together educators, economists and business leaders to talk about how we can strengthen the linkages between educational pathways and careers,” said Marilyn Reznick, Chair of ERP’s Board of Directors. “This is an opportunity to really step back and think hard about how we can make a more productive experience for all students.”
ERP’s paper, with contributions from nationally-recognized economists, educational, workforce system and early childhood leaders, summarizes actionable next steps for implementing a long-term solution focused on the concept of Educational Productivity. Educational Productivity correlates what an individual has learned, their productive potential in the workforce, and the economic value of what they know and how it can contribute to the economy. The goal of the new architecture is to improve the lives of all Americans by maximizing every person’s productive potential and economic mobility, regardless of educational attainment.
“Educational productivity is focused on how to maximize the potential of every learner regardless of their educational attainment,” said James Lanich, Ph.D., ERP’s President and CEO. “Based on the data ERP has collected and analyzed over the past two decades, we believe the current system is sorting learners out from opportunities to compete for high wage jobs in the labor market based on arbitrary criteria that does not adequately signal to employers a learner’s actual capabilities and potential. A new architecture is needed to connect more learners to jobs they do not know about or are eliminated from competing for.”
A new system designed to measure educational productivity would co-exist, collaborate and support existing educational, workforce and employment systems. In the educational productivity system:
Learning will be translated into economic value terms so that individuals can better understand the relationship between what they have learned and its economic value.
Productive potential would be understood, captured, measured and taxonomized to determine the best predictors of downstream economic success and the well-being of individuals and communities.
Employers, workforce systems and economists would play a greater role to identify, define and quantify more accurately the relationship between learning, workforce preparation and economics.
The desired system outcome is more opportunity, economic mobility and a more productive economy for all.
ERP is organizing the next Institute where more experts will work toward developing valid and reliable metrics that define and measure the economic value of learning at various stages of life from birth through career. Click here for more information on the Institute, or to access the full ERP paper.
About Educational Results Partnership
Educational Results Partnership (ERP) is a non-profit organization that applies data science to help improve student outcomes and career readiness throughout the educational system. Our goal is to ensure that more students enter the workforce with the skills today’s global economy demands. In partnership with educators and employers, we are charting the pathways that lead to academic success and living-wage jobs. Our partners include hundreds of K-12 educational institutions across the country, the nation’s largest higher education system, employer-led organizations and the foundations of former American Presidents.
ERP has accumulated the nation’s largest database on student achievement from kindergarten into the labor market. We use data science and predictive analytics to identify successful public education systems, practices, programs, and policies that are delivering the best results for students. We are committed to closing equity gaps in education and the labor market. Our research centers on improving academic and workforce outcomes for all, including students of color, foster youth and students in high-poverty regions.