ROOTED Dashboard: Retaining  Ohio’s Outstanding Talent through Education and Development 

Ohio’s technology sector is expanding fast, but the workforce that it needs hasn’t kept pace. Across Ohio, students are graduating from high school at high rates, yet postsecondary outcomes vary widely across districts. Some communities lose students early, while others face challenges keeping students enrolled through college completion. Understanding where each district is not reaching its fullest potential is essential for designing targeted interventions that build a stronger statewide workforce.

To cultivate the workforce ecosystem, the Battelle Center for Science, Engineering and Public Policy at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs has developed the ROOTED Dashboard, Retaining Ohio’s Outstanding Talent through Education and Development. The interactive, map-based tool allows users to explore and visualize district-level education and workforce data across Ohio. By transforming fragmented district-level data into actionable insights, the dashboard helps educators, policymakers and community leaders see where students are thriving and where the system needs support to capitalize on Ohio’s talent pool.

Ohio’s economic growth depends on cultivating a strong, diverse technology workforce. The ROOTED Dashboard gives decision-makers, from school administrators to state agencies, a way to see where strategic investments will yield the greatest return. It reflects the Battelle Center’s mission to use data-driven insight to support public interest innovation.

"Data-driven decision-making is key to creating opportunity," said Frazier. "By visualizing where our systems succeed and where they fall short, we can help communities, funders and the State of Ohio focus their resources where they’ll make the biggest difference."

The ROOTED dashboard shows where students are thriving and where they face challenges at each stage of their educational growth. By highlighting these differences, the tool can help guide investments and support so every student has a better chance to succeed.  

The ROOTED project team includes Lisa Frazier, assistant director for research, whose background in epidemiology, complex systems modeling and policy analysis anchors the group’s data driven approach; Lauren Doocy, a postdoctoral scholar and modeling and simulation researcher with deep experience in spatial data visualization and Ohio education data; Vidhi Bakshi, an Ohio State undergraduate in computer science and engineering focused on data visualization and public impact technology; Jessica Valsi, a policy analyst with years of experience in higher education and workforce development; Maddie Firth, a communications expert who supports public interest initiatives across academic and government spaces; and Mark Oleson, a data scientist with expertise in labor economics, statistics and dashboard design.  

"The work that Vidhi and Lauren have done epitomizes the value of what we do at the Battelle Center," said Frazier. "Their creativity, care and eagerness to collaborate brought the initial idea for this dashboard to life in just a few months, despite the challenges of synthesizing diverse datasets into a usable public tool."

"Vidhi illustrates the quality and potential for our Ohio talent pipeline," said Frazier. "As a first-semester freshman, she reached out eager to work on any public impact project. While she’s grateful for the opportunity to build the ROOTED Dashboard, it is the Battelle Center and our partners who are reaping the greatest returns on that investment."

Developed in Power BI, the ROOTED Dashboard integrates data from Ohio School Report Cards and FAFSA completion rates for the 2015-2021 graduating cohorts. The dashboard tracks students through key stages of the education life cycle: high school graduation, higher education intent, college enrollment within two years and degree attainment within six years. Users can compare districts with statewide averages, toggle between indicators, and generate charts highlighting areas of success or need.

Early intent to pursue higher education, often reflected in FAFSA completion, is a key predictor of later success but not always the determining factor. Some districts benefit most from raising awareness of college opportunities, while others need stronger financial, social or academic support after enrollment. The ROOTED Dashboard examines each district individually in order to support locally informed solutions and update new data as it becomes available so users can track progress over time and focus on equitable opportunities for all students.

ROOTED is a reflection of the Battelle Center’s mission to address challenges at the intersection of technology and public policy. Working with partners across Ohio State and beyond, the center brings together diverse expertise to understand complex public problems and design human-centered solutions that expand opportunity and innovation. Through commissioned research, experiential learning and co-curricular planning, the Battelle Center connects government, nonprofit and industry partners to Ohio State students and scholars. The result is a community of thinkers who apply technical skills and creative insight to the public good.

As Ohio continues to invest in education and innovation, the ROOTED Dashboard stands as a reminder that the greatest resource we have is the talent already here. The team is expanding the dashboard to include case studies of high-performing districts and exploring partnerships to apply this framework to other sectors.