Portfolio

Data Impact & Leadership

Through the Data Impact & Leadership portfolio, EdSystems:

  • Strengthens state- and community-level data capacity and systems.
  • Delivers integrated data through tools for practitioners, policymakers, and youth.
  • Engages with communities to utilize quantitative and qualitative data and evidence to inform pathways and transitions into postsecondary.
  • Establishes evaluation frameworks to assess and improve policy and program implementation.
Current Projects
Data Impact & Leadership

Academic Progress Indicator for Chicago Public Schools

EdSystems is supporting the district’s development of a new Academic Performance Indicator so that schools can better use standardized test data to understand the success of their interventions, including professional development, changes in curriculum, and innovative approaches to student support.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Data Impact & Leadership

Accelerated Model Pathways for Information Technology (AMP-IT)

The AMP-IT initiative is engaging school districts and their community college and employer partners to design and launch an accelerated IT pathway.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary, Data Impact & Leadership

Great Lakes College and Career Readiness State Advocacy Network

To support actionable policy development for high-impact college and career readiness strategies, EdSystems is participating in a cross-state community of practice.
Learn More >>
Data Impact & Leadership

Illinois Education and Career Success Network: Data Dashboard

To support Success Network Leadership Communities, the dashboard serves as a single stop for data to inform community decisions in advancement of equitable postsecondary attainment.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary, Data Impact & Leadership

Illinois Education and Career Success Network: Policy Committee

EdSystems staffs the Success Network’s Policy Committee to foster collaboration and peer learning, elevate local practice to inform state policy, and support local practitioners.
Learn More >>

Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS)

The Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) provides the governance and technical systems that support the integration of longitudinal data across participating Illinois state agencies.
Learn More >>

Rockford Regional Education Research Collaborative

To understand the long-term outcomes of pathways students in the Rockford region, the Rockford Regional Education Research Collaborative has designed a data infrastructure that leverages both state- and local-level data.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Data Impact & Leadership

Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (STAMP)

STAMP serves secondary districts in implementing manufacturing pathways that align to the College and Career Pathway Endorsement, with a particular focus on historically marginalized students.
Learn More >>
Illinois Longitudinal Data System: Data Governance, Processes, and Integration

The Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) supports data-driven policy and practice across Illinois’ education and workforce sectors by facilitating secure, interagency data sharing and governance. This document provides an overview of the ILDS and documents policies and processes for its governance; data management, staging, and requests; technologies and data security; legal; and, communications.

Strengthening the Talent Pipeline through STAMP: Regional Trends in Manufacturing Pathway Participation

The Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (STAMP) initiative represents a critical workforce development strategy addressing Illinois’ manufacturing talent shortage while promoting educational equity. This data brief analyzes participation trends from the program’s inception in August 2022 through December 2024, examining enrollment patterns, demographic representation, and geographic alignment with labor market demand across 19 participating Illinois school districts.

ILDS Progress Update: April 2025

An update on the Illinois Longitudinal Data System for the project’s Executive Committee, prepared by EdSystems. The report includes updates on leadership and governance, data integration, project spaces, and next steps.

Cost Modeling for State Longitudinal Data Systems

EdSystems’ cost model for a state longitudinal data system (SLDS) is based on interviews with a variety of SLDS and data organization owners across the country. This document provides a narrative context for the model and serves as a companion piece to a spreadsheet-based tool that practitioners can utilize to customize a model budget.

2025 Policy Agenda

EdSystem’s policy agenda outlines the core challenges we seek to address across four pillars: leadership, governance, and vision; student experiences and conditions; policy evaluation and continuous improvement; and future readiness. For each challenge, we identify policy aims that describe the conditions we aspire to and practices to drive college and career success for students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. Through these levers, we seek to support college and career readiness efforts at the state, regional, and local levels.

Students With High Needs Show Resilience Through Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways

The Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (STAMP) initiative, launched by EdSystems and the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, creates opportunities for students in 29 Illinois school districts to explore in-demand manufacturing careers and earn valuable industry credentials. In this brief, our first analysis of student participation data, we explore if historically underrepresented youth are obtaining manufacturing and employment skills that can positively shape their economic trajectories.

ILDS Progress Update: August 2024

An update on the Illinois Longitudinal Data System for the project’s Executive Committee, prepared by EdSystems. The report includes a project overview plus updates on the research and analytics agenda, ILDS projects, and governance.

ILDS Overview

A two-page introduction to the Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS), including what types of policy questions the system is designed to address, the historical background, and the governing board and partners.

Success Network 10-Year Impact Report

Assessing the collective impact of the Illinois Education and Career Success Network’s first decade: 2013–2023.

ILDS Progress Update: January 2024

An update on the Illinois Longitudinal Data System for the project’s Executive Committee, prepared by EdSystems. The report includes a project overview plus updates on standing datasets, curated datasets, data products and requests, and governance.

Early Pathways into the Education Profession: A Comprehensive Evaluation Framework

The framework includes (1) an evaluation framework for early pathways, (2) an investigation into the feasibility of using the Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) to analyze early pathways outcomes, and (3) an early pathways pilot study using 2022 Illinois Report Card data and interviews with high school and university administrators.

Early Pathways into the Education Profession: Quick Takes

A summary of Early Pathways into the Education Profession: A Comprehensive Evaluation Framework, a three-pronged inquiry into evaluating early pathways into the education profession.

Success Network Dashboard

Relaunched in 2023, the Illinois Education and Career Success Network’s Dashboard helps Leadership Communities analyze regional information on education and workforce system characteristics, track progress on postsecondary education attainment and education-to-career objectives, and benchmark community efforts against state averages.

ILDS Progress Update: June 2023

An update on the Illinois Longitudinal Data System for the project’s Executive Committee, prepared by EdSystems. The report includes updates on the Early Childhood Participation Dataset, High School to College to Career, Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Educator Workforce Standing Dataset, and ILDS 2.0.

College and Career Readiness Metrics and Evaluation Framework

This master metrics list includes data metrics recommended or employed by members of the Northern Illinois University P-20 Research & Data Collaborative (RDC) across their portfolio of collaborative, college and career readiness-related projects. EdSystems is a member of the RDC.

Great Lakes College & Career Pathways Partnership: By the Numbers Report, presented by Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University.
2020 Great Lakes College & Career Pathways Partnership: By the Numbers

The 2020 Great Lakes College & Career Pathways Partnership By the Numbers report examines community capacity as well as student experiences and outcomes. This report also reflects on process learnings as we concluded the work of the partnership.

60 by 25 Network Impact Report Cover
Illinois 60 by 25 Network Impact Report

This report captures the impact of the Illinois 60 by 25 Network from 2013–2020. The Network’s Leadership Communities are driving state policy implementation, deepening and validating collaboration by using the organizing principles of collective impact, increasing cross-sector collaboration, and enhancing leadership and governance structures within their communities. (The Illinois 60 by 25 Network is now known as the Illinois Education and Career Success Network.)

Report cover for "Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five, Statewide Early Childhood Needs Assessment: Unduplicated Counts Project" presented by Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies and Education Systems Center
Statewide Early Childhood Needs Assessment: Unduplicated Counts Project Report 2020

Funded by a federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five grant, the Unduplicated Counts Project links data across state agency systems to establish unduplicated counts of children ages birth through five receiving selected publicly funded early childhood services administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois State Board of Education.

Report cover for "Illinois Longitudinal Data System Annual Report & Plan: 2018" release in September 2018.
Illinois Longitudinal Data System: 2018 Annual Report & Plan

This annual report draws from meetings of the Governing Board and its committees, interviews with agency staff, and information from related state agency initiatives such as the Governor’s Cabinet on Children and Families.

Report cover for "Illinois Longitudinal Data System Annual Report & Plan: 2017" released in July 2017.
Illinois Longitudinal Data System: 2017 Annual Report & Plan

This annual report describes the primary Illinois Longitudinal Data System governance activities during the 2016–17 state fiscal year. It describes the priorities for 2017–18 and benchmarks efforts against the P-20 Longitudinal Education Data System Act.

Data Impact & Leadership

Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System

Launched in 2022, the Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System (CECIDS) integrates data across systems and programs to empower timely and actionable data analyses and products for families, program administrators, funders, advocates and policymakers.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways

Elgin: Expanding College and Career Pathways

Elgin’s Alliance for College Readiness engaged EdSystems to support alignment to the new College and Career Pathway Endorsement system and the State’s new Perkins V plan.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary, Data Impact & Leadership

Great Lakes College and Career Pathways Partnership

EdSystems provided the Great Lakes College and Career Pathways Partnership with strategic expertise and technical assistance.
Learn More >>
Data Impact & Leadership

Illinois Postsecondary Profiles

Illinois Postsecondary Profiles (IPP) is an online resource for data describing 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions in Illinois.
Learn More >>
College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Postsecondary Leadership Series

In support of the OneGoal team and their Postsecondary Leadership Series, EdSystems supported capacity-building for OneGoal staff and advising for partner-facing content relating to college and career pathways, early college credit, transitional instruction, work-based learning, and data.
Learn More >>
Data Impact & Leadership

Pro Path Illinois

EdSystems supported Pro Path Illinois to enhance and align data captured across state administrative systems.
Learn More >>
Creating clear, unambiguous paths to college and career opportunities

Find

Subscribe

Receive newsletters and invitations

Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Logo: Northern Illinois University Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development

© 2025 Board of Trustees of Northern Illinois University. All rights reserved.