February 14, 2018
NYU CUSP Professor Julia Lane discusses the NYU Administrative Data Facility (ADRF), which enables multiple local, state, and federal agencies to keep data in separate secure areas, and link data for approved projects (via Workforce Data Quality Campaign):
Today, many students transfer programs across state lines or move to another state for work after graduation. Many workers also have a job in a state different from where they live. Because most states only have data from within their own borders, it is difficult to truly understand how our nation’s education and workforce training programs are preparing people to find employment. Moreover, many localities cannot access state data, nor can states access local data. In order to make data sharing easier for state and local agencies, WDQC wants to share a new option for cross-agency data sharing, the Administrative Data Research Facility (ADRF). Julia Lane, the system’s creator, has detailed it below.
The New York University (NYU) Administrative Data Research Facility (ADRF) offers a new approach to sharing data across agencies and across state lines. It enables multiple local, state, and federal agencies to keep data in separate secure areas, and link data for approved projects.
The ADRF allows agencies within the same state or different states to agree to share their data in a common area in the cloud for specific approved projects. If approved, staff from multiple agencies can jointly access the common area, so that they can work together to develop new integrated datasets, share information about coding differences or similarities, and develop common measures. No personally identifiable information is stored in the cloud – the data are hashed and deidentified (with a common hash algorithm) — before being transferred to the secure area. Moreover, data stewardship modules can be deployed so that agencies can track use and work output. Over 175 agency staff, from about 50 agencies, have already accessed and used the ADRF.
