Pennsylvania launches higher education dashboards to track workforce trends
Pennsylvania’s newly created State Board of Higher Education on Wesnesday rolled out its first public higher education data dashboards, giving students, families and policymakers a view into college affordability, graduation rates, enrollment trends and workforce placements across the state’s colleges and universities.
The dashboards consolidate data, that had been siloed across agencies, into five categories: enrollment, credential and degree attainment, affordability, funding and finance, and workforce credential supply and demand.
State officials said the effort is intended to improve transparency and aid comparisons of institutions and outcomes. According to the announcement, the state plans to supplement the dashboards with webinars, FAQs and technical documentation to help users interpret the data responsibly.
“The State Board of Higher Education is committed to expanding knowledge about the higher education sector and all that it does to support our Commonwealth,” Cynthia Shapira, who chairs the state education board, said in a press release. “By providing a one-stop shop for this information, the Board is for the first time providing the kind of concrete, common-sense information we need to celebrate our contributions and further support our colleges and universities as engines of economic prosperity.”
The State Board of Higher Education was established in 2024 to help unify the commonwealth’s fragmented postsecondary system.
Unlike most states, which usually have a governing body to oversee their public higher education institutions, Pennsylvania’s system is split between state-owned universities, state-related universities, community colleges and private institutions — often leading to fierce competition for state funding, disparate tuition rates across institutions, and uncoordinated programs.
The new dashboards are part of the board’s strategic plan, released in February, aimed helping increase coordination amongst the state’s post-secondary schools and meet the needs of its higher education institutions.
The dashboards also mirror a broader trend among states investing in longitudinal data systems and public-facing dashboards to connect education outcomes with workforce needs. In California, which operates the largest public higher education system in the country, the state’s Cradle-to-Career Data System links education, financial aid and workforce data across agencies to help students navigate college and career pathways. In April, the Cradle to Career Office updated its Student Pathways Dashboard with mobile features and an additional year of data detailing student experiences from high school to their careers.
