Announcement

Summer 2023 State Data Policy Internship Research

heldrich_robb — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 14:35:01 +0000

Summer 2023 State Data Policy Internship Research

Published Date

December 18, 2023

heldrich_robb Mon, 12/18/2023 - 14:35

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Data Analysis

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by Ahmad Salman Zafar

The Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, which administers the New Jersey Statewide Data System (NJSDS), held its State Data Policy Internship program in summer 2023. Three graduate students were selected for the program and completed training on project scoping and data analytics using NJSDS. This year’s summer interns were:

Darshan Senthil - Master of Science in Computer Science, Rutgers University
Akash Shanmugam - Master of Information Technology and Analytics, Rutgers University
Sasya Thanhallapally - Master of Science in Information Technology, Arizona State University

The Heldrich Center crafted projects for the interns based on the specific needs of the partnering state agencies, aiming to enhance interns' comprehension of administrative data and empower them to provide insights for informed decision-making in related areas.

Throughout the internship, participants received hands-on training in analyzing administrative data to identify trends in education and workforce dynamics. The primary focus was on presenting these findings to decision-makers. The internship emphasis was on unraveling complex data and transforming descriptive statistics into meaningful trends, providing an opportunity for the interns to further develop their careers in data analytics.

The culmination of these efforts resulted in a valuable set of findings, metrics, and data. The intention is for these resources to serve as a guide for decision-making within the relevant state agencies, aligning with their research objectives, programs, and vision. Each project provided important insights that provide a framework for future analysis.

Career and Technical Education (Darshan Senthil)

An important objective of New Jersey’s 2020 Combined State Plan for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is to facilitate adults in New Jersey to earn an industry-valued postsecondary credential or degree (New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 2020). Recent global workforce trends necessitate more opportunities for adults to gain credentials beyond high school. CTE offers opportunities to students to gain technical and soft skills to prepare them for job market during and after high school. Using NJSDS, this study tracked a cohort enrolled in industry-based postsecondary programs that the State of New Jersey has identified as industry-valued credentials to ascertain student completion and employment characteristics. Research findings indicate that the majority of the students were enrolled in computer and information sciences programs followed by accounting technology/technician and bookkeeping. More than one-third of CTE program enrollees were able to earn a credential in three years after enrollment and the majority of these completers attended community colleges in New Jersey. The majority of the CTE earners were male and the same pattern was observed while tracking completion and employment status of the cohort. An important highlight of the project is that the median quarterly wages of employed students increased steadily in each of the first four quarters post-completion. Future research may further investigate industries joined by CTE program beneficiaries in the state to provide insights by industry and geographic area in the state.

Analysis of Literacy Programs (Akash Shanmugam)

Adult and community-based education programs promote educational equity and provide a career advancement platform for those who may not receive formal education. Such programs are important to upskilling community members. LACES (Literacy, Adult, and Community Education System) is the student data management system designed specifically for adult and community education programs. In this project, the intern tracked educational and employment outcomes of a cohort enrolled in different literacy and adult education programs using NJSDS. This analysis included completion characteristics of different adult and community education programs and examined subgroup differences on race, gender, and program level to record any major disparities. Analysis of the LACES program indicates that more than two-thirds of the total program enrollees did not complete their respective programs. Employment rates increased gradually up to four quarters following program exit. Median quarterly incomes also increased slightly at the end of four quarters tracked for this project when compared to wages for the first quarter. This project builds a foundation for future work on this topic, highlighting salient features of the LACES program in the state and provides insights that could be useful for designing interventions to improve program outcomes and maximize benefits for the beneficiaries.

Economic Mobility (Sasya Thanhallapally)

Postsecondary education plays a crucial role in upward economic mobility. However, many enrolled students drop out of college due to financial constraints that hinder their long-term career prospects. Economic mobility aims to overcome these barriers by ensuring equal opportunities of academic and professional growth for all genders, races, and social and economic classes. Research suggests that demand for postsecondary education typically increases during periods of economic downturn and helps in reducing unemployment rates, which in turn has a positive impact on household income, health outcomes, and civic engagement (Hinh, 2023). It is particularly important for researchers to know about the trajectory high school graduates adopt to better inform policymaking around college education and workforce development to ensure economic mobility for the state. This project tracked postsecondary educational and employment outcomes for New Jersey students who entered college in 2012 and 2013. The focus of the project was to analyze the proportion of students who pursued and successfully attained a college degree. It also highlighted differences in average earnings among those who did and did not complete a degree, and underscored the prevalent subgroup differences in these two categories of college enrollees across gender, race, and region. The study also tracked the median income of students based on their academic standing, revealing that those who are earning the highest wages among the cohort earned greater than a 3.5 grade point average during college. Median earnings of students based on their enrolled major were also calculated, and the findings suggest that students who pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors in college earned more than their non-STEM counterparts on average. This project paves the way for future research around this topic, particularly difference in wages within program area based on their college completion status. Such insights will better inform policymaking in the state for designing programs to improve educational and economic outcomes to ensure upward economic mobility by promoting equity.

References

Hinh, I. (2023). Risk of recession highlights need for states to support higher education. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/blog/risk-of-recession-highlights-need-for-states-to-support-higher-education

New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. (2020). New Jersey combined state plan. https://www.nj.gov/njsetc/planning/unified/documents/NJ%20Combined%20State%20Plan%20for%20WIOA%202020%20Approved%206-22-2020.pdf

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Discusses research studies conducted by New Jersey Statewide Data System interns during the summer of 2023.

New Blog Post: Using Online Scheduling Services to Make Customer Appointments

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:21:26 +0000

New Blog Post: Using Online Scheduling Services to Make Customer Appointments

Published Date

August 25, 2020

admin Thu, 10/22/2020 - 15:21

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workforce development

Unemployment & Reemployment

Workforce Policy & Practice

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Liana Lin

Heather Allen

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Using Online Scheduling Tools for Customer Appointments

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As the need for remote teaming and virtual service delivery continues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline staff in the public workforce system continue to explore the ways in which technology can assist them with their essential job duties on a day-to-day basis. At this unique moment, technology may be able to assist with customer-facing job duties in ways that workforce professionals have not considered or needed prior to the pandemic, which forced extensive operational changes at the local level.

One area where frontline staff may want to seek alternatives is using online scheduling services to more efficiently arrange customer appointments. Online scheduling services can eliminate much of the time-consuming back and forth via phone or email when trying to make and/or change customer appointments. This frees up staff time to focus on more customer-facing, value-added tasks.

Online appointment scheduling services are technology tools that allow customers to schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments through a web interface, without the need for staff assistance or involvement. If applied in the public workforce system, scheduling services could allow customers to schedule appointments with their career counselors in real time, with most of these technologies offering 24/7 web access via a computer or mobile device. Scheduling services instantly update a calendar when changes are made, thereby reflecting an up-to-date calendar at all times and eliminating any confusion or hassle in scheduling appointments.

A new blog post by Heldrich Center staff members Heather Allen, Amanda Bombino, and Liana Volpe reviews the benefits of online scheduling tools and previews three potential tools that public workforce offices might want to consider. Readers should note that the Heldrich Center is not endorsing any of these proprietary products.

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A new blog post reviews the benefits of online scheduling tools and previews three potential tools that public workforce offices might want to consider.

Rockefeller Foundation Publishes Case Study about New Jersey Career Network

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:21:26 +0000

Rockefeller Foundation Publishes Case Study about New Jersey Career Network

Published Date

September 24, 2020

admin Thu, 10/22/2020 - 15:21

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Rockefeller Foundation

New Jersey Career Network

Unemployment & Reemployment

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The Rockefeller Foundation has released a new case study about the New Jersey Career Network, an initiative that seeks to improve services for job seekers in New Jersey. The case study features comments from Dr. Carl Van Horn, Director of the Heldrich Center and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, and Dr. Beth Simone Noveck, Chief Innovation Officer for the State of New Jersey. Noveck is also a Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the Heldrich Center.

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The Rockefeller Foundation has released a new case study about the New Jersey Career Network.

Microlearning Strategies: Another Approach to Virtual Workshop Delivery

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:21:25 +0000

Microlearning Strategies: Another Approach to Virtual Workshop Delivery

Published Date

August 11, 2020

admin Thu, 10/22/2020 - 15:21

Type

Announcement

Topic

microlearning

workforce development

Unemployment & Reemployment

Workforce Policy & Practice

Suddenly Virtual

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Liana Lin

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As the public workforce system continues to redefine and refine remote service delivery, many local workforce areas are converting their traditional in-person workshop content on job search skills into recorded PowerPoints they post to the Internet. For many job seekers, this can be overwhelming, providing them with too much information to absorb at a time when they are already stressed by information overload. Microlearning — a strategy that breaks longer content into smaller, hyper-focused lessons — offers an alternative approach that staff can use to deliver job search skill development programming.

A new blog post by Amanda Bombino and Liana Volpe examines the concept and benefits of microlearning. It also provides detailed descriptions of two microlearning strategies — audiovisual media-based microlearning and interactive microlearning — and the technology tools that support microlearning strategy development and delivery. Readers should note that the Heldrich Center is not endorsing any of the proprietary products mentioned in the blog post.

Amanda Bombino is a Research Intern and Liana Volpe is a Research Associate at the Heldrich Center.

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A new blog post examines the concept and benefits of microlearning for the workforce development system.

New Report Released - New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report

heldrich_robb — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:49:10 +0000

New Report Released - New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report

Published Date

April 2, 2024

heldrich_robb Tue, 04/02/2024 - 13:49

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New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report

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The Heldrich Center is pleased to release New Jersey’s Teacher Workforce Landscape: 2024 Annual Report, the first in a series of annual reports examining the teacher workforce in New Jersey. This report uses data from the New Jersey Statewide Data System (NJSDS) to provide analyses of the state’s teacher workforce to understand teacher retention by demographic subgroups. The report also examines the pipeline of available teachers who could potentially fill vacant positions in schools throughout the state. Finally, the report provides an overview of the educator workforce in New Jersey and introduces a case study analysis that traces the outcomes of 2013–14 to 2015–16 cohorts of some of the state’s educator preparation programs using available NJSDS data to deepen understanding of what has been occurring in the state’s teacher pipeline.

Some key findings from these analyses include:

The overall number of teachers in New Jersey remained stable over the past 11 years.
Increases in teachers occurred in English Language Learning, elementary and middle schools, and computer science.
Large declines of teachers occurred in critical fields like world languages, mathematics, and science.
While the proportion of Hispanic teachers increased between 2013–14 and 2022–23, the proportion of Black teachers declined during the same period.
The median age of teachers remains relatively constant at 47 during this period, although the proportion of teachers aged 39 or younger has decreased.
There is a recent downward trend in the rate of the replacement of teachers.

The authors of the report were Heldrich Center staff members Daniel Douglas, Ph.D., Researcher; Ann Obadan, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow; Marjory F. Palius, Ed.D., Research Project Manager; and Stephanie Walsh, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Research and Director of NJSDS.

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The first in a series of annual reports examining the teacher workforce in New Jersey.

Scientific Research Needs a Radical Restructuring: An Exploitative System has Made STEM Unappealing to Would-be Academics

heldrich_robb — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 14:49:51 +0000

Scientific Research Needs a Radical Restructuring: An Exploitative System has Made STEM Unappealing to Would-be Academics

Published Date

February 29, 2024

heldrich_robb Thu, 02/29/2024 - 14:49

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Related Experts

Hal Salzman, Ph.D

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Scientific Research Needs a Radical Restructuring: An Exploitative System has Made STEM Unappealing to Would-be Academics

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For decades, politicians, policymakers, and industry leaders have told a disturbing narrative: an inferior educational system, this account goes, prevents many young Americans from entering STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, weakening the nation’s innovation and scientific enterprise. The resulting talent shortage, it reasons, can only be overcome by admitting larger numbers of foreign nationals who have the required skills. But this narrative misrepresents what actually drives large numbers of capable, ambitious, well-educated Americans away from STEM fields and toward careers in business, law, medicine, and other non-academic endeavors: a university labor system that exploits would-be scientists.

Authors Hal Salzman and Beryl Lieff Benderly discuss this subject in a newly released opinion piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Read more.

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New op-ed by Professor Hal Salzman published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Laurie Harrington Appointed Acting Executive Director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

heldrich_robb — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:34:07 +0000

Laurie Harrington Appointed Acting Executive Director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

Published Date

February 13, 2024

heldrich_robb Tue, 02/13/2024 - 13:34

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Laurie Harrington

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Laurie Harrington Appointed Acting Executive Director of the Heldrich Center

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Laurie Harrington, Assistant Director for Evaluation at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, has been appointed Acting Executive Director of the center. She succeeds Kevin Dehmer, who was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to serve as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education.

Laurie has conducted and led research projects covering a wide range of workforce and education programs and policies for more than two decades at the Heldrich Center. In addition to her deep knowledge about public and nonprofit workforce programs and labor market research, she also has experience assembling and managing research teams. She is also highly skilled in communicating results to government and nonprofit agencies that fund the center’s research portfolio.

Dr. Carl Van Horn, Director of the Heldrich Center and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, commented, "I am very grateful that Laurie has agreed to lead the Heldrich Center. I know she will continue to make very significant positive impacts on the quality of the center’s growing research agenda.”

Dr. Andrea Hetling, Associate Director of the Heldrich Center and Professor of Public Policy at the Bloustein School, shared, “I am thrilled that Laurie will be serving as the Acting Executive Director. She has been an integral part of the Heldrich Center, and I am looking forward to working with her in this new role.”

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Laurie Harrington has been appointed Acting Executive Director of the Heldrich Center.

New CERNs for a Fractured World

heldrich_robb — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 17:02:13 +0000

New CERNs for a Fractured World

Published Date

February 2, 2024

heldrich_robb Fri, 02/02/2024 - 17:02

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Announcement

Related Experts

Hal Salzman, Ph.D

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New CERNs for a Fractured World, a new opinion piece by Hal Salzman, Ph.D. and Leonard Lynn, Ph.D., explores how rising geopolitical tensions and technonationalism offer opportunities for new global organizations that build on the success of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) model. The article was published in the January/February issue of CERN Courier: Official Magazine of European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Salzman is a Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Heldrich Center. Lynn is Professor Emeritus of Management Policy at Case Western Reserve University.

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New op-ed by Hal Salzman, Ph.D., Senior Faculty Fellow at the Heldrich Center.

Kevin Dehmer Nominated to be New Jersey’s Education Commissioner by Governor Phil Murphy

heldrich_robb — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:43:24 +0000

Kevin Dehmer Nominated to be New Jersey’s Education Commissioner by Governor Phil Murphy

Published Date

January 30, 2024

heldrich_robb Tue, 01/30/2024 - 12:43

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Kevin Dehmer, Heldrich Center Executive Director, Nominated to be New Jersey’s Education Commissioner by Governor Phil Murphy

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Kevin Dehmer, Executive Director and Senior Researcher at Rutgers University’s Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, is departing the Center in February to serve as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education. He was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and joins his cabinet. Previously, Kevin served in leadership positions at the New Jersey Department of Education and twice was the Acting Commissioner.

During his tenure as Executive Director, Kevin provided outstanding leadership, supervising over 25 research and administrative professionals on multi-million-dollar projects aimed at raising the effectiveness of state and federal education, workforce, and social programs. He has been integrally involved in strengthening the New Jersey Statewide Data System and assessing strategies for addressing the shortage of teachers in New Jersey’s schools.

Dr. Carl Van Horn, Center Director and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, commented, "I congratulate Kevin on his nomination to lead the Department of Education. I am confident he will make a very positive impact on the lives of New Jersey’s students, families, teachers, and schools. My colleagues and I are deeply grateful to Kevin for his contributions to the Center and wish him much success during the next stage of his extraordinary career."

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Kevin Dehmer, Director of the Heldrich Center, has been nominated to be New Jersey’s education commissioner by Governor Phil Murphy

Dehmer and Walsh Author New Book Chapter

heldrich_robb — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:50:17 +0000

Dehmer and Walsh Author New Book Chapter

Published Date

December 18, 2023

heldrich_robb Mon, 12/18/2023 - 13:50

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Kevin Dehmer and Stephanie Walsh Author Book Chapter on Using Linked Administrative Data to Advance Evidence-based Policymaking

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Heldrich Center staff Kevin Dehmer and Stephanie Walsh, Ph.D. co-authored a chapter in the new book, Transforming the Business of Government: Insights on Resiliency, Innovation, and Performance, published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. The book addresses the pressing challenges governments face in public management, advocating for adaptive approaches and providing actionable insights derived from international roundtable discussions on emergency preparedness, cybersecurity, supply chain, sustainability, and workforce issues, with a focus on building resilience in the face of disruptive events.

Their chapter, “Using Linked Administrative Data to Advance Evidence-based Policymaking,” explores how to improve the use of existing administrative data based on a case study of the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS). SLDS can break down silos within government, facilitate shared governance, and answer research questions between state partners, while highlighting the benefits of data-driven decision-making. The use of SLDS data is transforming evidence-based policymaking, providing a model for how states and other governmental entities can better leverage administrative data for a broader set of purposes. To learn more about the book and their chapter, visit the IBM website here.

Dehmer is Executive Director and Walsh is Assistant Director of Research at the Heldrich Center.

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Chapter explores the use of linked administrative data to advance evidence-based policymaking.