2024 UDRC Research Agenda

Ari Fenn, Assistant Commissioner, Research
June 28, 2024

The sun rising through a rock arch in the desert.
Photo by Nicholas Ledoux on Unsplash

The beginning of a new fiscal year marks the start of a new research agenda for UDRC. This year, UDRC data partners and researchers suggested relevant and timely research that we are excited to add to the agenda. In addition to the new topics, UDRC is carrying over two topics from last year’s agenda. This is necessitated by rebuilding the data warehouse required after the move from DWS to USHE. This year, the research agenda items are:

In addition to the returns to individuals who earned a USHE award, Utah benefits from the investment in a postsecondary award. The higher wages associated with those who earned the USHE awards led to increased expected tax revenue collected.

  1. ASQ and Educational Outcomes
    Academic outcomes of children screened through the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) statewide early detection and intervention efforts as measured by the standardized screening and assessment results completed in preschool, kindergarten, 3rd grade, and beyond.
  2. Licensed Employment
    Higher education to licensure and, ultimately, workforce outcomes for occupations requiring licensure.
  3. Engineering Pathways
    Define the different educational pathways for those earning an engineering degree and the labor market outcomes associated with the various pathways.
  4. Changing Employers
    Research that demonstrates the relationship between changing employers and wages for USHE graduates.
  5. Revisiting the HII
    This research will use the updated HII from DHHS to show how changes in HII rank relate to changes in outcomes.
  6. Review of STEM Students
    Explore, define, and disaggregate the education and workforce pipeline leakage for initial STEM-declaring students.

The archived agendas are available if you are interested in the topics on previous research agendas. The archived agendas contain links to the completed research projects. The current agenda is available online and contains information on the relevant data partners associated with each project. We look forward to working on these research topics in the upcoming year.

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