By: Elizabeth Pierotti, Research Data Specialist, C2C
How can California expand opportunities for students to earn degrees and access good paying jobs? How can we develop a system to more fairly evaluate students based on their skills and experiences outside of the classroom? How do we streamline the transfer process from high school to community colleges, and on to four-year institutions while removing administrative burden? For the past five months, the eTranscript California Task Force explored these questions.
In January 2024, the California Cradle-to-Career Data System launched the first of six Task Force meetings focused on scaling eTranscript California and conceptualizing a Career Passport. The goal of this Task Force is to craft recommendations for the Master Plan for Career Education. Task Force members include educators, a student, representatives from education, government and workforce experts from across the state.
Each month, the Task Force discussed topics related to eTranscript and the Career Passport. Topics included college applications, dual enrollment, college planning tools, credit for prior learning (CPL), and skills-first hiring. The Task Force will complete their recommendations at its final meeting this week. To prepare for this meeting, we reflected on early progress towards revamping eTranscript to better serve Californians.
Standardizing High School Transcripts in California
High schools across California do not have a consistent method for reporting academic information on transcripts. This can lead to errors or slow processing times when it comes to college admissions decisions, which can have negative consequences for students. As a step towards solving this problem, the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) introduced a new high school transcript standard. All three public California higher education segments, as well as the California Department of Education (CDE) acknowledged the standard. Soon this standard will roll out to school districts across the state. The standard is hosted on the Cradle-to-Career website in the Data Standards Repository.
Supporting Dual Enrollment Students
More high school students than ever are taking college coursework through Dual Enrollment. Dual Enrollment is important for increasing rates of high school graduation, college enrollment, and completion. However, since students can sign up for college classes on their own, sometimes schools do not know which students are taking part in Dual Enrollment. This makes it difficult for teachers and counselors to help these students with college applications.
To address this problem, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) and CCGI will collaborate to better identify which students apply for Dual Enrollment admission. This means more useful and complete data will be available about which students applied for Dual Enrollment. The ability to identify Dual Enrollment students will help educators support their students as they work towards their college goals. It also opens up the possibility of connecting Dual Enrollment course data into the planning tools offered by CCGI. This will help students know if they are eligible to apply for a CSU or UC and can streamline the college application process.
These are highlights of some accomplishments so far. Please join us for the last Task Force meeting on June 6th where we will discuss final recommendations to include in the Master Plan for Career Education.