Nora Morris, who leads Minnesota’s State Longitudinal Education Data System, has spent her career using data to help people better understand complex systems.
Along the way, she has learned valuable lessons about how individuals absorb data and how dashboards can better connect with their users.
“My whole career has been built around how we get people from fear and status quo and into embracing data,” Morris said. “How do you take data and information and actually work with real life human beings to get them to use it when they're making decisions?”
Minnesota, home to one of the nation’s leading education-to-employment data systems, tracks students from pre-kindergarten through employment to help gauge the effectiveness of education and training programs and target improvements that can help aspiring students.
Minnesota’s progress was highlighted recently through the release of the 2025 State Opportunity Index. At an October convening in Washington, D.C., where state and education leaders learned from one another about how states are connecting education after high school with economic opportunity, Morris shared some lessons she has learned about making data more useful and approachable.
