interim charge 3. Question 7 of interim charge 3 reads:

What changes, if any, are needed to align data collection between the THECB, TWC and TEA in order to collect consistent metrics?

Texas Workforce Commission’s digital infrastructure, as highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis, is in desperate need of updating. In addition, in order to better align workforce and secondary/postsecondary vocational training, TWC should explore whether unemployment insurance wage records are robust enough to give meaningful and actionable data on outcomes for vocational programs.

The Foundation recommends that the Legislature and the Tri-Agency Commission study how to create stronger incentives for transparency and data access for researchers to study and compare outcomes from various state-funded workforce training programs. This would enable policymakers to allocate funding toward educational and training interventions based on their return on investment. A national example of this is the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (H.R. 4174), which “requires agency data to be accessible and requires agencies to develop statistical evidence to support policymaking.”