Getting Started
Public data, also called open data, is information that can be freely used and redistributed by anyone. While it contains no personally identifiable information, the data can often be disaggregated for in-depth analysis of how a program is working.
The Massachusetts Education-to-Career Research and Data Hub (E2C Hub) provides access to public data and information about school programs and outcomes over time. This page will get you started searching for and working with data in a format that best meets your needs.
Discover content
A central resource for public data on education and outcomes, the E2C Hub hosts a robust and growing catalog of multiyear datasets and features a variety of data tools, dashboards, and research available across state agencies.
From the menu, select:
- Public data for a searchable catalog of datasets and links to external data, dashboards, and resource pages
- Data stories for articles with charts and data explorers that add context to education policy and priority issues
- Users to begin exploring suggested resources for students and families, educators, policymakers, and researchers
Search for data
Use the search bar on any page to find publicly available assets, including datasets, stories, charts, and external resources. You can perform a keyword search, filter by category, and view type or topic. Sort results by:
- Alphabetical
- Most accessed
- Most relevant
- Recently added
- Recently updated
When you search for a term, the results list all assets where the term appears in any of the indexed fields. Results automatically include common variations of the same root term. For example, searching for "educational," will also match “education,” “educating,” and “educate.”
Suggest a dataset
Don't see what you're looking for? Use our inquiry form to ask about data or suggest a new dataset to add. Assets are updated regularly, so be sure to bookmark this site and check back often for the latest data and information.
Explore datasets
Selecting a dataset opens its About or primer page, which contains its metadata — information describing the data and how to use it. Choose the Data tab at the top left of the page to preview the data table. The Related Contents tab displays linked assets. Select the blue Actions button at the top right for options to query, visualize, and export.
The video below provides information on the features of the primer page, including:
- About, Data, and Related Content tabs
- Actions menu
- Export button
Search the Tyler Data & Insights Knowledge Base to learn more.
Note: The videos on this page offer closed captioning. Select the CC button at the bottom right of each video to turn on captioning or search the video transcript.
Watch a dataset
With a free Tyler Insights & Data account, you can receive notifications when a dataset is updated. Use the instructions at the bottom of the page to create your account. Once logged in, on the dataset page:
1. Select the blue Actions button
2. From the dropdown menu, select “Watch this dataset”
Query data
Built-in tools allow you to group, sort, and filter datasets before you export them or create visualizations. Select the blue Actions button and choose Query Data from the dropdown menu to access these tools. The following video demonstrates:
- Quick sort on a column
- Multi-column sort
- Simple filter operation
Filter views
Some data users might prefer to download the whole dataset and shape the data using their own tools. But for very large datasets, you may want to filter only the information you need first. From the Visual Query Editor, select the filter icon. Choose a column to use as the basis for the filter and add an operator, such as:
- is
- is not
- starts with
- contains
- does not contain
- is blank
Choose a value for the column, or type one yourself. Select Apply to view the results. You can add multiple filters this way using “and/or” logic. Once the data is shaped, you can export or save the dataset. You will need a free Tyler Data & Insights account to save.
Export data
Full datasets and data queries can be downloaded in several file formats. On the dataset page, select the Export button to the right of the blue Actions button and choose a file type.
The default export format is CSV, but many file formats are available:
Tabular Output
- CSV (Comma Separated Values)
- CSV for Excel (Tab Separated Values)
- CSV for Excel (Europe)
- RDF
- RSS (with GeoRSS information if there is a Location column in the dataset)
- TSV for Excel
- XML
Geospatial Output
- KML
- KMZ
- Shapefile
- Original
- GeoJSON
Connect data with API and OData
The E2C Hub also allows you to connect data to your tools via API and OData. We have created a guide to help you connect to data tools such as:
For more information please also consider visiting Tyler's support page: Getting started with the SODA Consumer API.
Create a chart
You can create a visualization from a dataset with built-in tools. To access the visualization canvas, select the blue Actions button, choose Visualize from the dropdown menu, and then Create visualization.
This video tutorial demonstrates how to create a basic column chart. Visit the Visualizations page in the Tyler Data & Insights Knowledge Base for additional support.
You will need a free Tyler Data & Insights account to save your visualizations.
Create a free user account
Select the Sign In button at the top right of any page to sign up for a free Tyler Data & Insights account. Creating your own account allows you to:
- Follow datasets for updates
- Create and save filtered views
- Save visualizations
- Manage created assets
