Last year, Strada Educational Foundation launched a new tool and report regarding the success of individuals who graduate high school in finding a career path, securing education (whether a 2 year or 4 year degree), and earning enough to generate an ROI on that educational investment. The tool and report, called the State Opportunity Index, gives states a quantifiable set of indicators that support a stronger connection between education and opportunity. Last year’s effort provided a baseline nationally, and for every state – including Ohio – to know where they stand, and to develop policies and programs which support students, educators and employers.
And as background, there are 5 priority areas addressed in the report: Clear Outcomes, Quality Coaching, Affordability, Work-Based Learning, and Employer Alignment. As a “rating” system, the report categorizes progress in four levels:
- Leading: State is at the forefront and has made the most progress towards creating equitable pathways to opportunity.
- Advanced: State has made substantial progress
- Developing: State is in the early stages of creating more equitable pathways
- Foundation: State is just beginning to create more equitable pathways to opportunity.
The 2025 update to last year’s inaugural effort was released recently, and here is the updated evaluation:
Clear Outcomes: This area is about having accurate, robust and timely data to inform stakeholders in the education-to-employment system. Maturity in this category reflects strong ability to collect education and employment outcomes data, to integrate it, and to provide it to students, families and other stakeholders. Since last year, Ohio’s work in this area has progressed, and we are currently a state which is Leading in this area, with particularly strong areas including state data elements and integrating these with partners such as PSEO and the State Wage Interchange System. Congratulations to state leaders for focusing on this.
Quality Coaching: This represents education-to-career coaching to help individuals achieve their education goals while positioning them for career success, including incorporating career planning within and throughout educational programs. Ohio’s data didn’t exist last year, but this year the 2 year coaching (at community colleges) was considered Advanced while coaching at 4 year organizations (colleges/universities) is Developing. Given the state’s focus on this activity, I expect to see both these measures strengthening in the next year, a positive development for Ohioans.
Affordability: This represents the number of hours a student would need to work annually (earning the state’s median wage) to cover the net price of their education (2 year or 4 year). As with last year, Ohio is considered Foundational for 4 year universities, with more than 46 hours of work per week needed during the school year and fulltime work during the summer to cover tuition, and would take low-income students 25 hours per week to pay. The first calculation was also available last year and has increased from 30 hours. For 2 year colleges, Ohio is Advanced, as students would need to work 18 hours during the week to cover this cost, with low income students needed to work 11 hours per week. The first measure, also available last year, is the same. Thank you, policymakers and donors, for holding these costs lower for Ohioan 2 year students!
Work-Based Learning: Internships, co-ops, clinical rotations, practicums, and apprenticeships allow students to engage in structured work experiences. This measure reflects the percentage of students at public 2-4 year institutions which participated in at least one of these five types of quality paid work experiences. Last year, Ohio did not have statewide data, but this year, 4 year student data put Ohio students in the Developing/Advanced areas: while only 41% of students participated in a paid experience, 81% participated in at least one of these types of experiences (paid or unpaid.) (Of note: both these rates of participation are higher than the national average.)
Worse: For 2 year students, this was considered a Foundational area, with only 11% participating in a paid work experience and 30% participating in a paid or unpaid work experience. And on both measures, we lag the national average. Clearly, this is an opportunity.
My takeaway: Employers: pay your interns, please! There are many ways these internships can be funded if it’s a struggle; reach out to me if you need help finding them.
Employer Alignment is based on the supply/demand ratio for a variety of high-demand, high wage jobs (those which promise strong earnings and continued economic advancement) and the estimated percentage of bachelor degree holders employed in these college-level jobs. There are a number of evaluations in this area: Ohio is Advanced in the percentage of 4 year degree graduates employed in college level positions, but Foundational in the average of the entry level supply/demand ratios for nine opportunity occupational groups (5 in IT and business, 2 in healthcare, and 2 in manufacturing and engineering.)
Lastly, the report provides an ROI assessment of pursuing a 2 or 4 year degree program based on the estimated percentage of graduates whose earnings premium over high school is enough to repay the total cost of the degree within 10 years. Here, Ohio’s overall average of 66% lags the national US average of 70%; this is negatively impacted by 4 year degree graduates (68% of whom can pay the cost back over 10 years, compared to the US average of 73%). 2 year Associate graduates are at the US average of 60%, a fall for Ohio graduates from last year’s report of 64%.
The value of this data is in the sharing it with those stakeholders – policy makers, education leaders, program designers, employers, and others – who can consider long-term changes to make which address and improve these statistics over time. Review it yourself here (overall, and for Ohio) and I look forward to discussing this data, and the implications for change in improvement in providing equitable access to opportunities, with you!