Value Data Collaborative
The Value Data Collaborative (VDC) empowers states, institutions, and systems to harness the power of data to better understand and improve students’ return on investment in postsecondary education, using the lens of the Postsecondary Value Framework.
About the Value Data Collaborative
IHEP launched the Value Data Collaborative (VDC) to explore a big question: what’s the return on investment in postsecondary education? The VDC empowers states, institutions, and systems to harness the power of data to better understand and improve students’ value in postsecondary education, by putting the Postsecondary Value Framework into action. This framework, developed by the Postsecondary Value Commission, provides an empirical and nuanced basis for understanding the return on investment in postsecondary education, particularly by race, ethnicity, income, and gender.
The VDC expands upon this work by supporting state agencies, institutions, and systems across the country in applying the framework to generate robust analyses on the current value provided by institutions and programs and to identify opportunities for future improvement. VDC participants have the opportunity to conduct original research, dive into analytics and data infrastructure, collaborate with peers, and drive meaningful changes in higher education policy and practice.
VDC Cohort 3
Coming soon!
VDC Cohort 2
In February 2025, IHEP launched the second cohort of VDC participations, including a diverse range of institutions, systems, and geographies. Participants include: the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), Kauai Community College, Dallas College, the state of New Jersey and the state of Missouri.
Participants are using state and institutional data to spark real change. Analyzing disparities and identifying high-value programs will enable institutions to advocate for stronger financial aid policies, refine curricula to better align with workforce needs, and strengthen collaboration between higher education and workforce agencies to promote equitable economic mobility.
VDC Cohort 1
The first cohort of the VDC included teams from Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Northern Arizona University. Those teams engaged in an Applied Data Analytics training course, which allowed participants to build technical skills, develop and refine analytic models, learn about the Postsecondary Value Framework, and use student-level data to produce research on postsecondary value in alignment with their strategic plans and priorities. Participants shared their research findings in a virtual convening, and presented on national conference panels and a Community of Practice event. Through their participation in the VDC, these teams connected with like-minded data and policy experts, deepened collaborations between agencies and offices at their states or institutions and were empowered to engage deeply with data to inform policies to support the equitable delivery of postsecondary value for more students.
Meet Our Partners and Advisors
The Coleridge Initiative serves as the VDC’s data infrastructure partner. Coleridge provides a platform to securely link confidential postsecondary and workforce data, called the Administrative Data Research Facility (ADRF). Coleridge also leads and coordinates Applied Data Analytics trainings to help participants use modern data analysis methods to answer real-world questions related to postsecondary value and develop open-source tools that can be used after training ends to improve decision making.
Westat serves as the analytic lead for the VDC, providing content, research design, and coding expertise to assist participants’ implementation of the postsecondary value framework.
Together, IHEP, VDC participants, the Coleridge Initiative, and Westat are working to produce actionable analyses and next steps for student-centered and data-informed decision-making by states, institutions, and systems.
