12-Month Research Agenda, Fiscal Year July 2024-June 2025: Virginia Office of Education Economics (VOEE)
Summary
12-Month Research Agenda of the Virginia Office of Education Economics (VOEE) for the fiscal year July 2024-June 2025. It states that VOEE collaborates with its Research Advisory Group to develop and report an annual research agenda to the governor and General Assembly on or before June 30th of each year. Among notable achievements for Fiscal Year 2023-2024, it says VOEE released six self-service dashboards, published six key studies, and developed a College and Career Outcomes Dataset with up to 14 years of data on a sample of Virginia graduates. For FY 2024-2025, the work aligns with five major themes, the first being a prioritized focus on higher-level analysis and translation, followed by project items with start and end dates.
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“12-Month Research Agenda, Fiscal Year July 2024-June 2025: Virginia Office of Education Economics (VOEE).”
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12-Month Research Agenda
Fiscal Year July 2024-June 2025
The Virginia Office of Education Economics (VOEE) serves as a pivotal resource for state-
administered education and workforce programs. VOEE data and analyses inform a diverse
group of stakeholders as they make programmatic and policy decisions related to workforce
education and training. This includes the governor and the General Assembly, who look to
VOEE as a guide as they make strategic investments in current and future education and
workforce training programs.
The mission of VOEE includes the following key areas of focus:
1. Coordinate Workforce and Higher Education Alignment: Conduct data analysis and
translate findings to partners to ensure alignment between the workforce and higher
education.
2. Provide Unified, Consistent, and Impartial Information: Serve as a reliable source of
information and analysis for policy development and implementation related to
education, the labor market, and workforce development.
3. Identify Emerging Trends: Identify and analyze emerging trends in education and
workforce development to proactively address future challenges and opportunities.
4. Support Economic Growth: Align research initiatives with the state's economic growth
objectives, ensuring that education and workforce programs contribute to broader
economic development goals.
5. Foster Collaboration: Enhance collaboration between state agencies, educational
institutions, and industry partners to create a cohesive and effective education and
workforce ecosystem.
6. Enhance Data Utilization: Improve the collection, analysis, and dissemination of
education and workforce data to support evidence-based decision-making.
Purpose of the Research Agenda
VOEE collaborates with its Research Advisory Group to develop and report an annual research
agenda to the governor and General Assembly on or before June 30th of each year. The current
Research Advisory Group comprises the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and Commerce and
Trade; the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; the Virginia Initiative for Growth and
Opportunity Board; and the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
The purpose of the annual research agenda is to:
1. Establish a clear focus for the Office's work in the upcoming fiscal year.
2. Guide research and activity efforts to align with and support current state education and
workforce development initiatives.
3. Describe the Office's major research projects and data priorities for the upcoming fiscal
year.
Notable Achievements within Fiscal Year 2023-2024
Three years into operations, VOEE has successfully integrated a variety of state, public, and
proprietary datasets to establish a comprehensive VOEE data model. VOEE has also
developed a cloud-based infrastructure for data management, visualization, and reporting.
Together, the VOEE data model and infrastructure support ongoing analyses, reports, and
dashboarding.
With the foundational data model and infrastructure in place, VOEE has been able to release six
self-service dashboards on www.voee.org/data, publish six key studies, and develop a new
College and Career Outcomes Dataset. This unique dataset includes up to 14 years of data on
a sample of Virginia graduates, including information on occupations, industry progression,
skills, and earning outcomes. The accompanying dashboard allows users to filter these data by
broad academic discipline, field of study, and institution of higher learning.
Looking Ahead to FY 2024-2025
Moving into FY 2024-2025, VOEE aims to build on and move beyond its foundational work. A
significant part of VOEE’s research this year will draw on the College and Career Outcomes
Dataset to address core questions relevant to the Office’s mission, including regional supply and
demand, occupational and skill adjacencies, and the emerging and future workforce. This year
VOEE will also focus on improving the dissemination of data and insights to stakeholders and
communities of practice. As part of this effort, there will be an increased emphasis on
storytelling in making data and analyses more engaging and accessible to users.
VOEE's work this year will align with five major themes to enhance the Office’s impact and
effectiveness in supporting a deeper understanding of education and workforce alignment
across Virginia.
Theme 1: Prioritized Focus on Higher-Level Analysis and Translation
Objective: Provide higher-level analysis and translation of data.
Key Actions:
o Develop analyses, insights, and takeaways tailored to stakeholders who do not
require or desire self-service.
o Focus on storytelling and data translation.
o Implement a comprehensive communication plan to regularly disseminate data and
analyses.
Impact: Make VOEE analysis accessible for a more diverse group of stakeholders and
communities of practice.
Key Stakeholders: Career Technical Education (CTE) coordinators and other K-12
administrators, higher education administrators, and workforce program administrators.
Theme 2: Broaden the Sharing of VOEE’s Data Model
Objective: Expand the sharing and utilization of the VOEE data model across various platforms
and stakeholder groups.
Key Actions:
o Develop a new user-initiated custom reports option for distinct user groups to access
analysis beyond dashboards.
o Promote the adoption of VOEE workforce definitions and analytical frameworks
through collaborations with state agencies and partners.
o Embed dashboards into relevant practitioner websites and portals.
Impact: Further VOEE’s mission to become the primary source for data and analysis of
education and workforce alignment in Virginia.
Key Stakeholders: All VOEE stakeholders.
Theme 3: Extend Analysis and Data on Regional Education and Workforce Alignment
Objective: Enhance the Education and Workforce Alignment Dashboard to include additional
education and training pathways by region and career cluster.
Key Actions:
o Integrate CTE high school credential completion data into the dashboard.
o Focus on High-Quality Work-Based Learning and Youth Apprenticeship programs.
o Visualize historical trends of Registered Apprenticeship programs by region.
Impact: Provide a more comprehensive view of regional education program activity aligned to
the local workforce, enabling users to identify pathways that are satisfying regional demand and
to address gaps and misalignments between education and training and the workforce.
Key Stakeholders: Policymakers, CTE coordinators, and higher education and workforce
program administrators.
Theme 4: Evaluate How Degrees and Credentials Support the Regional Workforce
Objective: Use the College and Career Outcomes Dataset to understand career pathways and
performance by field of study.
Key Actions:
o Evaluate career pathways by field of study in terms of earnings and career trajectory
metrics, including time to self-sufficiency attainment, retention in career clusters, and
industry.
o Measure the impact of additional education, training, and upskilling on career
outcomes.
Impact: Provide empirical evidence of education’s effects on career access, job, and wage
progression in Virginia, allowing for more informed investments and decisions around higher
education programming.
Key Stakeholders: Policymakers and higher education administrators.
Theme 5: Identify Workforce and Skillset Adjacencies for Difficult-to-Hire Occupations
Objective: Assess similar and adjacent occupations and skillsets.
Key Actions:
o Develop a hybrid model that compares knowledge, skills, and abilities data with the
most frequently advertised skills from online job postings to assess their level of
relatedness.
o Analyze skillset compatibility aligned to jobs of interest through testing and feedback
with business and industry.
o Assess the availability of workers in regional economies and observe workforce
transitions in the College and Career Outcomes Dataset.
Impact: Foster a deeper understanding of workforce adjacencies, allowing for identification of
new talent pools for difficult-to-hire jobs and the development and provision of targeted
upskilling to improve both worker and employer outcomes.
Key Stakeholders: Employers, higher education administrators, and workforce program
administrators.
FY 2024-2025 Select Planned Activities and Projects by Thematic Focus
Theme 1: Prioritized Focus on Higher-Level Analysis and Translation
Develop and launch communication strategy to systematically and regularly disseminate
VOEE analyses and insights to stakeholders
Create expanded analyst team to develop thematic and summary analyses and insights to
support communication strategy
Theme 2: Broaden the Sharing of VOEE’s Data Model
Pilot a new program labor market assessment report in partnership with the State Council of
Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to use as part of the academic program approval
process
Establish new data agreements to address gaps within VOEE's data model
Theme 3: Extend Analysis and Data on Regional Education and Workforce Alignment
Extend visualized analysis in the Education and Workforce Alignment Dashboard to include
VDOE Career Technical Education (CTE) data on high school credential completion and
related career clusters
Expand Registered Apprenticeship data elements with visualized historical trends by Virginia
regionalities
Theme 4: Evaluate How Degrees and Credentials Support the Regional Workforce
Begin to identify credentials of value and conduct a gap analysis of education system
offerings across the Virginia K-12 and higher education landscape
Develop and publish an empirically derived program-to-occupation crosswalk for bachelor’s
and associate degrees as an alternative to NCES CIP-to-SOC for Virginia-specific education
and workforce development research
Publish a new series of research briefs analyzing the career outcomes of graduates sampled
from the College and Career Outcomes Dataset with a first focus on manufacturing, data
science and AI, and liberal arts and humanities
Theme 5: Identify Workforce and Skillset Adjacencies for Difficult-to-Hire Occupations
Develop an Adjacent Workforce Model to identify similarly skilled workers and adjacent talent
available to hard-to-hire jobs that are aligned to occupations that are prioritized by the
Commonwealth
Integrate College and Career Outcomes Dataset to develop a skills-based hiring tool and
partner with relevant business and industry to assess its value to the market
FY 2024-2025 Major Planned Activity and Project Work Breakdown Structure
Major Research Activity/Project Name Start Finish
Extend Visualized Analysis in the Education and Workforce Alignment (EWA)
1 6/1/2024 6/30/2025
Dashboard
1.1 Integrate VDOE Career Technical Education (CTE) high school credential completion data 6/1/2024 10/1/2024
Expand Registered Apprenticeship data elements with visualized historical trends by
1.2 5/1/2024 9/30/2024
Virginia regionality
Develop a new skills analysis in the Job Posting Analytics Explorer: skills showing the
1.3 greatest growth and decline as well as those identified as emergent. Add an industry filter 6/1/2024 11/1/2024
capability.
1.4 Expand regionality to include Superintendent Regions 6/1/2024 12/1/2024
Develop and Test a Graduate Supply and Demand (GSD) Model Based on Historical
2 Observations Estimating Where College Graduates from Regional Institutions Have 7/1/2024 6/30/2025
Obtained Employment Within Regional Economies Across the State
Apply GSD model to estimate the number of regional graduates that are remaining in a
2.1 7/1/2024 9/1/2024
region, post-completion, and filling local jobs
Develop a Percent of Adequacy regional metric and accompanying Rubric for
2.2 9/1/2024 2/1/2025
Interpretation
Create a Regionalized GSD Data Visualization and assess on a test version of the EWA
2.3 2/1/2025 5/1/2025
Dashboard
3 Develop a VOEE- Hybrid Adjacent Workforce Model (including Skills Adjacencies) 5/1/2024 1/1/2025
Test model incorporating knowledge, skills and abilities, and skill cluster methods to
3.1 5/1/2024 10/1/2024
develop an adjacency score
3.2 Integrate data visualization into EWA dashboard 10/1/2024 1/1/2025
FY 2024-2025 Major Planned Activity and Project Work Breakdown Structure (continued)
Major Research Activity/Project Name Start Finish
4 Apply Skills-Matching Data to VOEE Data Tools 5/1/2024 4/1/2025
Further test and assess VOEE/AdeptID model incorporating AI-based skills-matching data
4.1 5/1/2024 10/1/2024
to labor market
4.2 Assess possible integration into EWA or other VOEE online tool/dashboard 10/1/2024 1/1/2025
5 Pilot a New Program Labor Market Assessment Report for SCHEV 7/1/2024 12/30/2024
5.1 Develop Scope of Work with SCHEV 7/1/2024 8/1/2024
5.2 Create prototype for testing 9/1/2024 12/30/2024
5.3 Launch "Report Version 1.0" as pilot for use with new program/curriculum proposals 1/1/2025 4/1/2025
5.4 Identify other applications and stakeholder groups 1/1/2025 4/1/2025
Develop and Launch Communications Strategy to Systematically and Regularly
6a 5/1/2024 6/30/2025
Disseminate VOEE Analyses and Insights
6a.1 Define VOEE stakeholder channels in VEDP Salesforce.com 6/1/2024 8/1/2024
Develop thematic analysis plan aligned to relevant stakeholder groups to guide content
6a.2 8/1/2024 10/15/2024
creation for pilot 12-month communications plan
6a.3 Launch stakeholder communications plan with regular stakeholder communication 11/1/2024 6/30/2025
Create Expanded Analyst Team to Support Thematic and Summary Analyses and
6b 5/1/2024 6/30/2025
Insights to Support Communications Strategy
Hire new analysts to support launching summary and highlight analysis communications
6b.1 5/1/2024 8/1/2024
strategy
6b.2 Post revised Research and Data Analyst position and hire 1-2 FTEs 5/1/2024 8/1/2024
Develop thematic analysis plan aligned to relevant stakeholder groups to guide content
6b.3 8/1/2024 10/15/2024
creation for pilot 12-month communications campaign
FY 2024-2025 Major Planned Activity and Project Work Breakdown Structure (continued)
Major Research Activity/Project Name Start Finish
7 Establish New Data Agreements to Address Gaps in Data within VOEE's Data Model 7/1/2024 6/30/2025
Identify data elements available through agencies and third parties to strategically augment
7.1 7/1/2024 12/30/2024
current VOEE data portfolio
Establish new data agreements as necessary and begin migration of new data into VOEE's
7.2 9/1/2024 6/30/2025
data cloud
8 Identify Credentials of Value and Conduct a Gap Analysis (multi-year project) 7/1/2024 6/30/2026
8.1 Develop a methodology to identify jobs and skills that align with state talent initiatives (FY26) 7/1/2024 12/30/2024
8.2 Create a crosswalk linking credentials to aligned jobs to identify valuable credentials (FY26) 1/1/2025 6/30/2025
8.3 Conduct an audit of current K-12 CTE, higher education, and workforce systems (FY26) 7/1/2025 12/30/2025
Publish a report assessing alignment and areas for improvement to enhance system-to-talent
8.4 1/1/2025 6/30/2026
initiative alignment (FY27)
9 Research and Development Projects 7/1/2024 6/30/2025
Explore effectiveness of select AI models for application to VOEE data and analysis (RAG,
9.1 7/1/2024 12/30/2024
LLM, Tableau Pulse, etc.)
Review options for sourcing data of interest from select data marketplaces and make
9.2 9/1/2024 6/30/2025
recommendations for implementation
Audit data and analytical subscription services to identify new sources of data that can be
9.3 9/1/2024 6/30/2025
used in VOEE's data model and analyses
Develop an empirically derived education program-to-occupation crosswalk by degree level
9.4 as an alternative to NCES CIP-to-SOC for Virginia-specific education and workforce 10/1/2024 6/30/2025
development research(ers)
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