RILDS Center

The RILDS Center is located in the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner, and the Center staff are employees of the Council on Postsecondary Education.  

Successfully operating an integrated, longitudinal data system requires personnel skilled in data engineering, analysis, visualization, and governance. The Center team currently has six employees, including data engineers to optimize the accuracy and efficiency of linkage and data analysts to conduct equity-driven analyses.

The RILDS Center was founded in 1992, with the goal to inform, empower and inspire innovative decision-making. For 30-plus years, it has been assisting policymakers in state and local governments, community leaders in nonprofit organizations, and academic researchers across the country. 

Rhode Island began the development of its statewide longitudinal data system in 2009. In leveraging funding from the U.S. Department of Education Safe and Drug-Free Schools grant and State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) grant, Rhode Island committed to building an statewide integrated, longitudinal data system. State leadership identified a local Rhode Island non-profit, the Providence Plan (ProvPlan), as the ideal intermediary to centralize and analyze data for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Rhode Island another SLDS grant, and the U.S. Department of Labor awarded Rhode Island its first Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) grant, allowing further development and enhancement of the system. The ProvPlan’s DataSpark team operated the RILDS, then known as the Rhode Island DataHUB, from 2009 through 2017. 

In February 2017, the University of Rhode Island formally acquired DataSpark and the RI DataHUB, and the Contributing Agencies consented to this acquisition. DataSpark operated as program unit of the University Libraries for six years. In June 2023, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed Governor McKee’s proposal to institutionalize and invest in RIILDS. 

The Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System Act formalizes and expands data governance structures, more closely integrating this decision-making resource into Rhode Island’s state government. It renames the Rhode Island DataHUB to RILDS, DataSpark to the RILDS Center, and relocates both from the University of Rhode Island to the Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner (RIOPC). This move centers the RILDS within the Contributing Agencies’ existing partnership structure, and since OPC supports all three public higher education institutions, strengthens partnerships between the RILDS Center and state researchers. RILDS is a mature, robust P20W+ (early learning through workforce and beyond) system.