Partners
To accomplish its responsibilities, the MLDS Center relies on unique partnerships with other State agencies, including:
- Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC)
- Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)
- Maryland Department of Labor
- Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS)
- Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS)
- Maryland Health Occupation Boards and Commissions under the Department of Health; and
- The University of Maryland,School of Social Work (SSW)
State Agencies
In addition to providing the student and workforce data that form the basis of the data system, the original three partner agencies, MHEC, Labor and MSDE, each share a staff person with the Center. The shared employees are fully funded by the MLDS Center. They spend half their time on MLDS Center duties and the other half on duties related to the partner agencies. This model was developed to help the agencies build capacity to be able to support the Center’s work on an ongoing basis as well as ensure efficient communications and cooperation. In addition, MSDE provides additional in-kind support by providing office space, fiscal and personnel management, and hosting of the system within its data center.
University of Maryland
The Center’s other critical partner is the University of Maryland, School of Social Work (SSW). Through an ongoing interagency agreement, SSW serves as the Research Branch of the Center. SSW is a national leader in research and evaluation and has compiled a team that provides in-depth, scholarly analysis of the Center’s research questions. The Research Branch team includes scholars from other Maryland public institutions, including:
- University of Maryland, College Park - College of Education, Department of Economics, and Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County - School of Public Policy
- Morgan State University - School of Education and Urban Studies
The schools are also committed to training new scholars in the use of data and both have engaged various graduate students and doctoral candidates to work on Center related research. SSW provides additional in-kind support by providing fully equipped office space for the MLDS Center headquarters.