MHEC Launches Interactive Dashboard, Providing Data and Key Indicators to Promote Student Success in the Midwest

Minneapolis, Minn. – April 8, 2020 – The last few months the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) has been piloting an interactive dashboard that provides data and key performance indicators relevant to the goal of improving postsecondary educational attainment in the Midwest and across the nation.

“The new dashboard is a comprehensive and user-friendly site that pulls together a lot of diverse data sources, and answers key questions about access and success in education,” stated Jeremy Kintzel, education research director for the Office of Performance and Strategy at the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. “It’ll be a go-to resource for us.”

Indicators in the dashboard are organized within seven categories: Context, Preparation, Participation, Affordability, Completion, Finance, and Benefits. Several of these areas of focus also portray a subcategory that highlights opportunity and achievement gaps by income, race, and ethnicity. Data can be examined over time or compared across states using various benchmarks, including the U.S. average or population proportion as a lower performance benchmark and the median of the top five states in the nation as an aspirational benchmark.

“We have received a lot of feedback over the last few months that will lead to a steady stream of improvements in the dashboard's functionality, such as providing additional years of data and new indicators.” said Aaron Horn, associate vice president of research for MHEC.

“I’m really proud of our team and their hard work to bring this important resource and tool to the Midwest and beyond. Dr. Shaun Williams-Wyche, MHEC's research manager, played a key role in developing this dashboard in-house," added Susan Heegaard, MHEC president. "Given the difficult time that we all currently face, data-based decision making is critical, now more than ever.”

“MHEC has compiled an intuitive set of dashboards that allows users to quickly benchmark highly relevant postsecondary metrics,” highlighted Jason Pontius, associate chief academic officer for the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. “It's a great resource for states, governing boards, and institutions.”

The dashboard can be located at MHEC.org/dashboard. MHEC continues to seek feedback from stakeholders on this new interactive tool with a focus on continual improvement.

About MHEC
Legislatively created, the Midwestern Higher Education Compact’s purpose is to provide greater higher education opportunities and services in the Midwestern region. Collectively, MHEC creates solutions that build higher education’s capacity to better serve individuals, institutions, and states by leveraging the region’s resources, expertise, ideas, and experiences through multi-state: Convening, Programs, Research, and Contracts. Member states are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. MHEC.org

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Contact
Mary Roberson
MHEC Senior Director of Communications and Marketing
maryr@mhec.org
(612) 677-2765 direct | (612) 805-3396 cell