From Data Silos to Data Strategy
How 3N Consulting Built a Statewide Analytics Platform to Strengthen Maryland's Educator Pipeline
The Situation
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) sought to strengthen the state's educator pipeline amid rising teacher shortages, uneven retention rates, and growing demands for workforce diversity. Each of Maryland's 24 Local Education Agencies (LEAs)—including St. Mary's, Charles, Carroll, Cecil, and Wicomico Counties—collected workforce, certification, and fiscal data independently using disparate systems and manual processes.
Without an integrated analytics platform, MSDE lacked the visibility needed to monitor staffing trends, assess recruitment strategies, or make proactive policy decisions under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future. Key challenges included:
- Data fragmentation across HR, certification, and fiscal systems
- Manual, time-intensive reporting limiting responsiveness
- No standardized metrics for teacher retention, mobility, and diversity
- Limited predictive capabilities to forecast shortage areas and support equitable resource planning
MSDE engaged 3N Consulting as its lead business and analytics partner to design and implement a comprehensive data and performance dashboard—transforming disconnected data into actionable insights for state and district leaders.
3N Approach and Solution — Powered by AAA (Assess–Align–Accelerate)
- Convened cross-functional sessions with MSDE's Human Resources, Budget & Fiscal Services, and Educator Certification teams to map current workflows and data flows.
- Led end-to-end assessment of data sources and architecture across HRIS, personnel, and certification systems; defined quality rules and validation checks.
- Stood up automated ETL pipelines to ingest, clean, and transform data; profiled historical trends in retention, mobility, and diversity.
- Established standardized statewide metrics for retention and diversity to ensure apples-to-apples comparisons across all 24 LEAs.
- Designed the unified Educator Workforce Dashboard architecture, aligning business requirements with technical components (data model, permissions, refresh cadence).
- Introduced a pragmatic data governance model with role definitions, change control, and versioning to coordinate work across departments.
- Built interactive, real-time dashboards to visualize educator demographics, certification trends, attrition, and recruitment effectiveness.
- Implemented predictive models to anticipate shortage areas based on demographic, geographic, and certification signals.
- Automated previously manual reporting workflows to reduce cycle time and enable self-service analytics.
- Delivered hands-on training, documentation, and a sustainability plan (refresh protocols, access, and support model) to ensure durable adoption and ongoing improvement.
Results Delivered
The Maryland Educator Workforce Dashboard now operates as a statewide benchmark and decision-support tool, giving MSDE and all 24 LEAs a unified view of recruitment, retention, and diversity. Through the AAA delivery rhythm, 3N helped MSDE shift from reactive reporting to strategic, data-driven workforce management.
Key Outcomes
Cost Optimization
Projected annual savings through optimized substitute and contract teacher utilization
Efficiency Gains
Reduction in manual reporting time via automated data pipelines and streamlined workflows
Cross-Department Alignment
Realigned internal HR and data functions, improving coordination and responsiveness to district needs
Standardized Metrics
Statewide, standardized metrics for retention and diversity enabling consistent tracking and equitable analysis
Predictive Insights
Predictive modeling supporting proactive staffing decisions aligned with the Blueprint for Maryland's Future
Sustainable Platform
Governance and practices to sustain the platform, setting a new standard for state education agencies
Platform Impact
The engagement delivered not only a robust analytics platform but also the governance and practices to sustain it—setting a new standard for how state education agencies use data to shape workforce outcomes.
Why This Matters
This project reflects 3N Consulting's commitment to helping public institutions turn insight into impact. Through the Assess–Align–Accelerate model, we deliver solutions that align people, process, data, and technology—enabling measurable performance, efficiency, and long-term value.
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