DXtera Institute

Accelerating the Use of Education-to-Workforce Data Forum

PRESENTED BY

Register Now

ABOUT THE FORUM

The DXtera Institute and the Massive Data Institute (MDI) at Georgetown University invite you to their 4th annual forum focused on the opportunities, challenges, and emerging best practices in the use of education data.  This annual event continues to engage parties from across the education ecosystem to discuss optimal uses of new technologies and applications to benefit learners and education institutions. 

Join us to explore current initiatives and consider what the future could look like in understanding U.S. learners’ pathways from K-12, through higher education, and into the workforce.  Imagine a public infrastructure that removes friction points throughout the lifecycle of education data, unlocking learner data’s potential for families, teachers, administrators, and policymakers.  

This event builds on our previous discussions on the use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), increasing trust in AI, and shortening the distance to interoperability within education data landscapes.

FORUM DETAILS

The Forum will be held at the Georgetown University Capitol Campus at 125 E Street, 9th Floor, Washington DC on October 10, 2025 from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM.   We will continue our tradition of having innovators, doers, and action-oriented participants involved in learning and sharing with their colleagues throughout the day.  The registration fee is $99. If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, you may waive it by using code WAIVE2025. Please contact Lauren Lopez (lauren@dxtera.org) if you have questions about the registration fee code.

We always welcome sponsors to help underwrite the operational and travel costs associated with the Forum.  Please contact Lauren Lopez (lauren@dxtera.org) for more information on this opportunity.

AGENDA 

8:30 am  – 9:00 am Coffee and Breakfast

9:00 am – 9:05 am  Welcome

9:10 am – 10:10 am  Education-to-Workforce Open Source Solutions Built to Standards

  • Curtiss Barnes, CEO, 1EdTech
  • Sean Casey, Head of Partnerships, EdFi Alliance
  • Tricia Farris, Senior Director, AEM Corporation
  • Andrew Rice – CEO, Education Analytics 
  • Facilitator:  Dale Allen, President and Co-Founder, DXtera Institute

This session will focus on the efforts occurring and next generation vision to shorten the distance to interoperability along the Education to Workforce pathway.  Leaders of standards organizations and innovators deploying solutions will share their current activities, collaborations and the possibilities to come for developing standards and open source solutions built to a standard that better meets the needs of educational institutions, learners and technology providers.  In addition, this session will set the stage for exploring how we may be able to align infrastructure to support a desired continuum of data from PK-20 and the workforce. 

10:10 am – 10:20 am Break 

10:20 am – 11:05 am Privacy Protection of Federal Education-to-Workforce Data

  • Barry Johnson, Non-Resident Fellow, Urban Institute
  • Amy O’Hara, Research Professor, Massive Data Institute

This open discussion will examine the data privacy implications of increased access and use of education-to-workforce data. What are current examples of privacy protection in this field, and are they sustainable? And, do these protections satisfy user needs? Topics include the College Scorecard, the Secure Query System, and relevant legislation governing the sharing of federal earnings data.

11:10 am – 11:55 am  Enabling Transfer and Program Completion Pathways

  • Jeff Merriman, CTO and CO-Founder, DXtera Institute
  • Andromeda Yelton – Lead Software Engineer, JSTOR Labs
  • Ivanok Tavarez, Software Engineer, JSTOR Labs

In today’s market it is challenging for the Learner and the institution to access, utilize and share the credentials earned or courses completed for use in their transfer pathway. Significant efforts are underway to remove the friction points and provide greater access and utilization of this data within and from institutional systems of record to other locations for processing to support the learner’s pathway needs.  The panelists will share their innovation and vision for the next generation of solutions needed to enable credential pathways even further.  

11:55 am – 12:05 pm FRAMES Grant Snippet

12:05 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch

    1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Learner and Employment Record – Optimizing Skills for the Learner

    • Greg Nadeau, BD Manager, Public Consulting Group
    • Kate Smalkin, Vice President – Engagement, CredLens  
    • Jason Tysko,  Senior Vice President, Policy and Programs. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
    • Frank Cicio, CEO, IQ4
    • Co-Facilitators: Phil Long, Senior Fellow, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, Georgetown University & LER Network Consultant, T3 Innovation Network, US Chamber of Commerce Foundation & Jeff Merriman, CTO and Co-Founder, DXtera Institute

    The market related to a Learner and Employment Record are evolving quickly with expanding opportunities and deployments occurring across the country (and beyond).  The panelists will share their experiences related to leading collaborative efforts to spur better policy, practice, technology development and the emergence of solutions that are supporting the optimization of skills for the Learner.

    2:00 – 2:10 pm Break

    2:10 – 3:25pm How Recent Federal Legislation Will Accelerate Postsecondary Ed-to-Workforce Data Integration

    • Clare McCann, Managing Director of Policy and Operations, Postsecondary Education & Economics Research (PEER) Center
    • Chase Sackett, Policy Director, America Forward
    • Dana Brandt, Vice President, State Data System Advancement, Strada Education Foundation
    • Facilitator:  Kathy Stack, Senior Fellow, Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy

    This panel will cover upcoming changes to federal, state, and institutional data infrastructure as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and what data solutions are needed to measure institutions’ desired outcomes. Topics will include Workforce Pell Grants and new student aid accountability requirements, and whether insights from these programs will provide useful information to postsecondary institutions, training providers, and learners.

    3:30 pm – 4:15 pm LIF Demo and Discussion – Context + MCP

    • Rachel Scherer, Senior Program Officer, Data Innovation, Gates Foundation 
    • Benito Gonzalez, Software Architect, Unicon
    • Jacksón Smith, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Learning Economy Foundation
    • Co-Facilitators:  Dale Allen, President & Co-Founder, DXtera Institute & Amy O’Hara, Research Professor, Massive Data Institute

    In education, solutions that are personalized to learners drive stronger engagement, increase motivation, and save valuable time. When those solutions are also context-aware, they can adapt more effectively to institutional governance requirements and guardrails. In this session, we’ll explore how pairing the Learner Information Framework (LIF) with an MCP server enables an AI agent to access rich learner context and maintain persistent, shareable memory—delivering personalized guidance from the very first interaction. We’ll share the problems we’re hearing from the field, provide a brief demonstration of a potential workflow, and open a discussion on the new questions and next steps this work raises. 

    4:15 pm Reflections and Closing Remarks

    Register Now

    Participants from the 2024 Forum