SACRAMENTO – Today Governor Newsom announced the California Cradle-to-Career Data System (C2C) reached a pivotal phase in its mission to transform education and workforce development in the state. In October 2023, C2C successfully received its first data installment from its data partners. C2C will now integrate more than 1billion data points — bringing unprecedented insight that is slated to help families, policymakers, and researchers access and improve education outcomes for millions of students and workers in the state.
Taking an unprecedented approach of linking datasets from K-12 and higher education, social service, and workforce entities, C2C is on the verge of uniting information from disconnected data across sectors and providing insights previously unavailable. For example, students, families, and lawmakers will be able to answer questions such as:
- “Where do young people in my county go after high school?”
- “Are they getting the preparation they need to land and keep jobs with living wages?”
- “What do those trajectories look like when the data is broken down by race, gender, or geography?”
By linking data from multiple sources, C2C aims to illuminate gaps and identify opportunities throughout students’ education experiences so they can ultimately reach their goals for life and career.
Governor Gavin Newsom said, “By leveraging billions of data points, California’s Cradle-to-Career data system will be a game-changer for improving the quality of life for millions of Californians and highlighting ways to improve opportunity in the classroom and access to the workforce. Through insights and innovation only made possible by this system, the Golden State is leading the nation in equitably connecting our education system to the workforce to ensure every Californian has the freedom to succeed.”
“This milestone represents a significant step forward in our mission to establish a robust, comprehensive data system that provides a nuanced understanding of Californians’ educational and professional journeys,” said Mary Ann Bates, Executive Director of the California Cradle-to-Career Data System. “I want to thank our data partners for their unwavering commitment to ensuring that Californians will have validated, reliable data available to inform decisions. This collective effort will equip our state with the data and tools necessary to ensure that every Californian has the opportunity to succeed.”
“As we know, without complete and meaningful data, decision-makers at the state, local, and campus levels are each left with only a fraction of a student’s journey,” said Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a long-standing proponent and appointed C2C Governing Board Member. “The old adage is that we can’t manage what we don’t measure and now, for the first time, silos within the state’s educational system are being broken, creating the opportunity for future decisions to be based on the a holistic picture of a student’s academic journey. I want to congratulate everyone who has worked so hard getting to where we are today and I want to thank the Governor for having the vision to support this effort when he was first elected.”
Appointed C2C Governing Board Member Senator John Laird said, “The Legislature took bold action to create the Cradle-to-Career Data System, with the aim of unlocking data to ensure that Californians have the actionable information they need to build a brighter, more inclusive future.” He added, “This milestone is worth celebrating, and I look forward to seeing the publicly accessible tools and resources C2C will build with this data.”
C2C’s early achievements come on the heels of a multiyear effort to design the country’s most ambitious state longitudinal data system. Backed by Governor Gavin Newsom and championed by legislators, advocates, researchers, educators, and community leaders, the California Cradle-to-Career Data System is a testament of the state’s dedication to innovation and data-driven solutions for the benefit of its residents.
This first data transmission included data that has been collected, validated and prepared by the following partners of C2C:
- California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office
- California Department of Education
- California State University Chancellor’s Office
- California Student Aid Commission
- Commission on Teacher Credentialing
- Department of Health Care Services
- Department of Social Services, and
- University of California Office of the President
After integrating data from these partners, C2C will collaborate with the Employment Development Department in early 2024 to fold-in employment and earnings data.
For more, see C2C’s comprehensive 5-year plan to integrate and link robust data from cradle to career, including planning future data on early learning and care, independent and private universities, workforce development, and social services.
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The State of California’s Office of Cradle-to-Career Data System, part of the California Government Operations Agency, seeks to foster evidence-based decision-making to help Californians build more equitable futures and empower individuals to reach their full potential through creation of user-friendly, data-informed tools to deliver information on education and workforce outcomes. It puts actionable information into the hands of students, families, educators, researchers, advocates, and public policy decision makers. For more information on the Office of Cradle-to-Career Data System, go to www.C2C.ca.gov.