BACKGROUND
The Cradle-to-Career Data System aims to link existing education, workforce, financial aid, and social service information to better equip policymakers, educators, and the public to address disparities in opportunities and improve outcomes for all students throughout the state.
RECENT UPDATES
Together with our partners in the California Higher Education Equity Coalition we are supporting the Governor’s proposed allocation of $15 million for Phase I implementation.
In March 2021, we joined 37 community-based, educational equity, civil rights organizations, and industry groups in a letter to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee supporting the allocation. We are excited to see that the proposal incorporates key elements that we have been advocating for, including:
- A publicly available pre-school-to-graduation-to-work dashboard and query tools
- Tools to help students navigate transitions from K–12 to higher education
- Data from all higher education segments, including private colleges
- Transparent processes for researchers to access linked data while protecting student
privacy - Ongoing, meaningful community engagement work to ensure the public and educators
know how to effectively use the system
At the same time, the Coalition is pushing for changes to the proposed governance structure. The Workgroup’s recommendations call for 12 members representing the institutions providing data and five public members with a two-thirds voting threshold, which would enable decisions to be approved without any votes from the public members. We are urging legislators to increase the threshold to two-third plus one.
What’s next? We’re happy to report that the Legislature has approved a $15 million appropriation in the 2021–22 Budget Act to officially launch the Cradle-to-Career Data System. Going forward we will monitor the governing board and staff charged with implementing the system to ensure it fulfills its promise to serve parents and students and advance equity throughout California’s pre-K–12 and post-secondary educational systems.
