1. The Role of Longitudinal Earnings Data in Documenting College’s Value
Annual Conference 2017
Presenters:
Richard W. Moore, Management
Bettina Huber, Institutional Research

2. Aims of Presentation
Provide an overview of our approach to tracking and analyzing the post-college earnings of students enrolling at Cal State Northridge.
Outline expansion to students enrolling at CSU campuses in the Los Angeles Basin.
Discuss the value and uses of earnings data by various campus constituencies.

3. Project Overview Initially developed model focusing on Northridge data
With aid of Strada grant, are scaling up Northridge follow-up model to seven CSU campuses in the Los Angeles Basin.
Channel Islands
Dominguez Hills
Fullerton
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Pomona (Cal Poly)
Northridge

4. Project Overview (cont’d.)
Strada funds projects to gather and disseminate data measuring return on investment in college and career preparation.
During two-years of initial funding (October 2016 – September 2018) will
Track the earnings & employment of all students entering one of the Basin campuses between 1995 and 2014, regardless of their higher education outcomes.
Provide feedback to the LA Community Colleges sending students to the relevant campuses.
Display the results so that students, administrators and policymakers can easily access labor market outcomes for multiple campuses & programs.

5. Our Navigational Beacons
Follow all matriculated students, over time.
Use standard data sources available in every state.
Create standard, easily understood labor market measures (including ROI).
Consider earnings while enrolled
Disaggregate data to campus and program level.
Make results publicly available.

6. California EDD Base Wage file
The Approach
CSUN Student Records
California EDD Base Wage file
Higher Ed
Clearing House
Analysis Data Base

7. What we have done so far: The Northridge Data

8. California Base-Wage File
All California Workers with earnings covered by Unemployment Insurance (ES 202 File): 90% of all workers.
Quarterly earnings as reported by employers, not self-reported.
Industry, but not occupation, is included.
Individuals may have multiple employers in a quarter.

9. Key Assumptions
Records without earnings three or more consecutive quarters are not found.
You may:
Move out of state
Out of labor market (raising children, deceased)
Other possible explanations: in military, federal employee, self employed
Earnings are adjusted for inflation to 2012 $$$.

10. We Created Six Paths Enrolled as : First-time Freshman or
Graduated Bach (only) CSUN
Enrolled as :
First-time Freshman or
Enrolled as UG Transfer
Did not Graduate
Bachelor Grad Other Institution
Graduate Degree Other Institution
Enrolled as PostBac
Graduate Completers
Graduate Drops

11. Early Results for CSUN Students

19. The Web Site: Top Employing Industries

20. The Web Site: Outcomes by Major

21. The Web Site: Outcomes by Major

22. The Web Site: Return on Investment

23. The Web Site: Return on Investment

24. Benefits of Expanded Focus on Los Angeles Basin
Assess the CSU’s regional impact by
Examining 15 years of earnings data for a single labor market and multiple degree programs
Provide ROI down to the program level
And by demographic differences (e.g., age)
Explore impact of college employment on post-back earnings
Provide earnings data to various CCC campuses sending students to Basin campuses
Use data from multiple campuses to
assemble earnings data on small majors

25. Benefits of Expanded Focus (cont.)
Examine differences in earnings by:
Demographic group (e.g., gender, race & ethnicity)
Proficiency at entry
Pell eligibility
Provide summary data on an interactive website useful to applicants, students, parents, and university
employees.

26. Discussion Questions
Would this system be of value to your institutions?
What are the political implications of making such data available within the campus? To the public?
What’s missing in our approach so far?
How could you adopt this to your institution?

27. More Data Posted on Northridge campus IR website:
And click on “Alumni Earnings” on the left side.