California’s Cradle to Career (C2C) Data System will soon launch its first dashboard, marking a major milestone in the state’s journey toward data transparency and access. For the first time ever, Californians will have access to critical information that can help them make informed decisions about their education and career pathways. This is a moment worth celebrating.
As a native Californian and someone deeply invested in data access and use, I have followed this journey with interest and excitement. I remember the not-so-distant past when California’s leadership limited education data collection, viewing it as unhelpful or even punitive. The transformation since then has been remarkable. California passed its best-in-class law in 2021 establishing the C2C Data System and Office, identified members of and brought together the governing board, and hired its Executive Director in 2022, setting a new national standard for how a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) can serve students, families, job seekers, policymakers, and researchers. Because this data is longitudinal and linked across systems, it will be possible for every high school principal and parent in the state to know how their graduates fare in postsecondary education and the workforce.
Unlike other states that built SLDSs primarily for policymakers and researchers, California explicitly designed C2C to serve the public first. This trailblazing approach required continuous learning and engagement. Every major decision on C2C—data privacy, user experience, equity—has been made intentionally and in the sunshine, with input from agency leaders, advocates, and everyday Californians, a stark contrast to the closed-door decisionmaking that still characterizes many state data conversations.
Anyone can look at nationally-recognized models like the Kentucky Center for Statistics (KYSTATS) and see the immense value that public data access can provide. But what you see today on their dashboards took much longer than three years to build. Kentucky started small and built bigger as they built trust across the state. California, on the other hand, started big in order to not just meet leading states, but to surpass them. As a lifelong advocate for better data, I understand and share the impatience of those eager to see C2C’s new dashboard go live and begin to produce some of those same insights. Is the C2C process a few months behind schedule? Yes. But is the result a tool shaped by robust, meaningful engagement—one that will truly serve families and students for years to come? Also, yes.
Given my decades of advocacy, working to see California catch up to other states, the leaders of C2C offered me the chance to see a demo of the forthcoming dashboard. While their team is working out the last kinks, I was able to see a very impressive set of data visualizations showing, for the first time, where students go after high school. Two things about this tool are particularly noteworthy in my opinion. First, after extensive community engagement, the designers landed on dynamic data visualizations to present data in a user-friendly format rather than the typical pages of indicators. And second, the tool includes a link on every single data visualization enabling the user to download the underlying data; you won’t have to take any indicator at face value—you can replicate it for yourself.
I have seen time and again that states can rush to build and launch dashboards, only to see them collect dust—unused, irrelevant, or outdated. Worse, most states do not have cross-agency governing boards to oversee their SLDS, so members of the public have nobody to hold accountable for the lack of data access or use. As a result, many states that built SLDSs years ago still lack basic tools for the public to use data or engage with the process.
California set a new course, ensuring from the outset that transparency and public involvement were central. Unlike most other states, California’s governing board isn’t just agency heads, it includes eight members of the public who are there to push agency leaders as they make decisions. Additionally, meetings are open, and access to data for students, families, educators, and researchers has been a top priority. This is the right approach, and one that takes time to get right.
For 20 years, I have worked to push states toward greater inclusivity, transparency, and engagement in their P–20W data efforts. The time is now for state leaders to build and maintain data systems that meet people’s needs. They will soon be able to look to California to see how it’s done.
Disclosure: Gavin Payne, chair of the California Cradle-to-Career Data System Board of Directors, is also a DQC Board member. DQC has long advocated for robust state data systems and provided best practice recommendations for states as they build their own systems, including in California. We asked Payne to join our Board of Directors because of his experience in a state attempting to innovate.
