Data committee: youth-serving organizations lack longitudinal evaluation capacity; committee plans pilot and shared metrics

Bevin Christie (Pivot Consulting) and Dr. Dave Velez, co‑chair of the data and research committee, told the Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council on May 14 that outreach to roughly 11 youth‑serving organizations reveals common evaluation challenges: limited staff and resources for data collection, reporting driven by grant requirements rather than program impact, and little longitudinal tracking of young people's outcomes.

Dr. Velez said organizations often measure simple process metrics (attendance, participants served) because funder requests drive reporting, but they lack capacity to assess longer‑term outcomes such as social‑emotional development, leadership or sustained changes over multiple years. He said committee work is exploring a shared data framework or city‑supported data platform and technical assistance to build evaluation capacity.

Committee members proposed piloting an aligned approach tied to existing CTE and dual‑enrollment work at North Division, strengthening advisory boards and industry partnerships, and pursuing funding avenues (including outreach to Employ Milwaukee and MMAC). The committee flagged a state‑level funding gap for dual enrollment and CTE: technical colleges can offer dual‑enrollment courses taught on high‑school campuses, but current state funding rules sometimes limit state credit to courses taken on college campuses, hindering stable funding for in‑school offerings.

The committee said it will continue to refine pilot plans, seek partners and report back at the next meeting, and scheduled further work sessions to align metrics and identify technical assistance needs.