State governments have much to gain from learning more about the quality outcomes of nondegree credentials. Yet the information they need hangs just out of reach. Why? Because some credentials reside in a black box, unavailable to state higher education agencies or the colleges that prepare students for non-degree credential exams. But a new national data trust called CredLens aims to change that.
The gap between instruction and attainment in noncredit education creates a unique dilemma. If we don’t know whether a student attained their credential, all other quality metrics become less meaningful. Employment, wages, transfer to a degree program, all assume that the student first obtained a credential. State reimbursement for credential completion also relies on documentation of attainment. So states like Louisiana, Virginia, and Oregon may not be fully funding colleges for the noncredit instruction they provide.
The main nondegree credentials reported by colleges are certificates, which signify that students have completed a program offering. That information is fully available for policymakers and researchers.
The problem comes with certifications and licenses. Certifications are earned by passing a performance-based assessment that demonstrates a specific set of skills—such as CompTIA for IT professionals, or a Certified Medical Assistant certification for healthcare workers. Certifications are typically issued through industry or professional groups, or by individual companies.
These third-party issuers typically do not release data on who obtains certifications to states or providers. In a survey by the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC), only 6 out of 15 states that answered a question about tracking student credential attainment reported receiving any data directly from credential issuers. In eight states, institutions obtain self-reported data from students, an approach known to be challenging and time-consuming given the difficulty of finding former students and motivating them to respond.
Licenses are also earned by passing a performance-based assessment, but they are most commonly issued by public entities, primarily state boards and agencies. Those entities may include boards of medicine, cosmetology, and real estate, as well as departments of health, motor vehicles, social services, and education. If a higher education agency or system seeks licensure attainment data, they must negotiate agreements with each issuing entity. In another EERC survey, only 6 out of 28 respondents reported that other entities in their state share license earner data with them.
That brings us to CredLens, which aspires to become a national data trust for nondegree credentials. Credlens is only a year old, resulting from a series of brainstorming sessions at Strada Education Foundation. The Strada analysis began with the remarkable leaps over the past decade in understanding quality outcomes for degree-seeking education, most notably the federal College Scorecard and state-level student longitudinal data systems. Stacy Caldwell, who came on board as CredLens’ first executive director a year ago, recounts the dilemma that provoked Strada to act.
“There’s a whole range of opportunities in workforce credentials and third-party credentials that are good pathways for students to pursue,” she says. “But there just isn’t the data to allow for good choice-making.”
CredLens is focusing on certifications, although its scope of interest includes licenses and other credentials as well. The organization plans to ask third-party issuers of certifications, as well as some other credentials, to provide datasets of students who have attained those certifications. Participating state agencies, systems, and possibly individual providers will provide datasets of students who completed instruction to prepare for taking examinations for certifications. CredLens will then match the certification database with the student database to identify students who completed their instruction and obtained their certification.
To make this concrete, let’s say a state workforce agency wants to know how many students enrolled in a supply chain management program obtained the relevant certification. CredLens will have that information and potentially break it down into subgroups to identify which groups have low attainment rates and might need more support. Everyone benefits from this arrangement: The agency gains insight into the connection between programs and credentials, potentially qualifying providers to receive state funding; the issuing organization gains the opportunity to promote its credential.
CredLens’ ambitions go still further. Once the state agency has learned whether students who enrolled in a supply chain management offering actually obtained their certification, it might want to know whether those learners got jobs in their fields and higher pay. After all, providers offer at least three different certifications in supply chain management, and tuition for programs leading to these credentials costs anywhere from $2,000 to $4,500. CredLens plans to build out data capacity to match student attainment with labor market outcomes, including from unemployment insurance data and commercial products. This would enable states to recognize and direct their financial support to credentials with the most value in the labor market.
CredLens is also exploring methods for matching to additional certificates and degrees—so that states can understand ongoing educational attainment. For example, credentials such as a pharmacy technician or EMT certification often represent students’ first foray into credentialing; so policymakers and institutions will benefit from learning which attainers continue on to seek degrees. CredLens is currently negotiating with National Student Clearinghouse, the “gold source” for two- and four-year college degree data, to obtain and link this information.
Key to CredLens’ agenda is privacy protection. CredLens staff spent six months focused on building out a robust and modern architecture and a set of privacy standards that would address concerns about the safety of personally identifiable information, including adherence to ISO 27001 standards and SOC 2 compliance.
“If we’re going to be a trust, we have to make the back end really world class from the beginning,” says Caldwell, “and put in place the processes that support security.”
An important question is how much information CredLens and its partners will make public and in what ways. Full transparency would be ideal but probably not realistic. After all, certification issuers will set the terms by which they share data with CredLens, and they may be understandably reluctant to release outcomes data that adversely reflect on their credentials. Without a clear understanding of how each party benefits from these voluntary arrangements, the data trust model cannot survive.
The CredLens mission is a vital one for all those who care about improving the quality of nondegree credentials. For that reason, state and federal policymakers should engage to demonstrate that they value CredLens’ mission and will take steps to incentivize cooperation with its data trust model. Over time, their collaboration and support should increasingly emphasize public disclosure of credential attainment and outcomes.
Tom Hilliard is a consultant and former research engagement manager at the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, which focuses on better understanding how education intersects with the labor market. Michelle Van Noy is director of the EERC.