Data Meets Practice: Drawing Pathways to College for my Legislative District

5 MIN READ

The first article of this series, Data Meets Practice: What Student Pathways Data Stories Can Do for Education Leaders, introduced readers to the CA Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System’s first dashboard -- the Student Pathways Data Story. 

In this second article, of the Data Meets Practice series, we will discuss how policymakers can take advantage of this tool.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Local legislators and other elected/appointed officials can use the same dashboard, drilling down into their legislative districts. Check out the Student Pathways Fact Sheet for Legislative Districts.

By collecting data within and across legislative districts, policymakers and advocates can:
​

• Identify workforce development challenges in the community with which to design and collaborate on local and/or state policy initiatives. This strategy acknowledges that postsecondary education access is a critical component of effective and equitable workforce development strategies.
• Leverage data to partner with organizations as authors, or with other legislators as co-authors, of new/reintroduced legislation. This information can also inform support of equitable policies via Yes/Aye votes in relevant committees that the legislator is a member of or leads (e.g., Chair).
• Leverage data to amplify the importance of active bills during a legislative cycle. For example, in my region, the following legislators have introduced legislation that this dashboard can support:

Assemblymember Ash Kalra (AD 25) - AB 326 - CSU Audits.

​As the largest enroller of 4-year-intended college students, student outcomes across the state may provide rationale for advancing this bill to ensure all California State University (CSU) campuses, and the CSU Chancellor’s Office implement their budgets and resources in ways that lead to degrees and jobs.

Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens (AD 26) - Protect the Head Start Program.

​Post-high school student outcomes can strengthen support for this campaign to ensure that CA Head Start programs continue serving 85,000 kids and families annually, by providing a rationale for protecting the $1.5 billion in federal funding that could be cut by the current presidential administration.

Senator Dave Cortese (SD 15) - SB 743 – The Education Equalization Act.

​Post-high school student outcomes can strengthen the argument for closing long-standing funding disparities between California’s public schools.

​In the section below, I will demonstrate some of the visualizations for my districts. Instead of the School District filter, use the Legislative District filter to leverage the dashboards. From there, you can select the 1) Assembly or 2) Senate District based on number (e.g., SD 15). The following are screenshots of my legislative districts for each data point.

AD 25 Filter

SD 15 Filter

---

How have California students navigated to and through college?

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• Milestones over eight years, from 2014-2023, indicate similar first enrollment and completion benchmarks for Bachelor’s degrees in both districts.
• There is less information available for AD 25 regarding who completed Community College Certificates and Associate Degrees than for SD 15.

AD 25

SD 15​

Who enrolls in college?​

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• For the 2022-2023 enrollment year, a higher percentage of Asian students (+14%) enrolled in all institution types in AD 25 than in SD 15.
• A higher percentage of White students (+13%) enrolled in all institution types in SD 15 than in AD 25.

AD 25

SD 15

What types of degrees do students earn?

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• For the 2022-2023 award year, approximately 50% of students earned a Community College Certificate OR an Associate Degree in both districts. 
• Of the 50% who earned Bachelor’s Degrees, just over 30% did so through a transfer program.

AD 25​

SD 15​

Once students enroll in college, how long does it take them to graduate?

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• For the 2022-2023 award year, the median time to award for graduates of CA public colleges obtaining a Community College Certificate was 3 years in both districts.

AD 25

SD 15

What about students who work while they are enrolled in college?

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• For the 2022-2023 academic year, students worked and earned a little more in AD 25 than in SD 15.

AD 25

SD 15

How much do students earn after they graduate?

AD 25 vs SD 15 Insights

• For the 2021-2022 award year, the median wages for all certificate and degree types ranges from $25,000 and $42,000 in both districts.

AD 25

SD 15

To close, I hope that policymakers, elected and appointed officials, and education advocates will explore the Student Pathways Dashboard for their local legislative district to gain a better understanding of what happens to their constituents.

For the next article in the "Data Meets Practice" series, check out:

• Pairing C2C with Other Tools to Measure Student Outcomes

​​
For the first article in the "Data Meets Practice" series, check out:

• What Student Pathways Data Stories Can Do for Education Leaders

---

​AdvancED Tips

Want to dig even deeper?

Check out the following resources from the CA Cradle-to-Career Data System:
​

• C2C Dashboard: Pathways to College in California - Explore your district's data.
• Student Pathways Resource Hub - Access tutorial videos, student stories, companion publications, and infographics.
• Student Pathways Fact Sheet for School Districts and for Legislative Districts - Web-based factsheet answering how to use the data story, who is and is not included, and frequently asked questions, including information about the data.
• FAQ: Student Pathways Data Story - Provides greater detail about topics like the data sources, districts and student populations, wages and earnings, privacy and data suppression, and data definitions.
• Student Pathways Data Story Data Dictionary (30 pgs) - Includes a glossary, information about the dataset metadata, and an explanation of the fields.