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First published on May 12, 2025 9 MIN READ  This article is the first in the Data Meets Practice series! At the end, you'll find links to other posts that explore tools educational leaders can use to support their communities in measuring student outcomes and using data to inform local practices and priorities. On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, years of hard work from hundreds of California leaders and advocates culminated in the launch of the CA Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System's first dashboard — the Student Pathways Data Story, a first-of-its-kind tool in the state. I was eager to dig in, and this article documents my exploration. As a proud inaugural Advisory Council member from 2022 to 2024, I had the opportunity to explore the design of this dashboard, so I understood well before the launch what it could do for educational leaders from K-12 to postsecondary. This article focuses on the vision for this dashboard and the unique opportunities we have in the cradle-to-career ecosystem to leverage this tool and its data to inform our practices. Whether you are a school board member, a community college/district board member, a superintendent, a lead counselor, a college promise program, or a nonprofit, this article is for you!  Source: https://c2c.ca.gov/ Dashboard Tour: Explore the new Dashboard with AdvancED On June 7, 2025, I recorded a tour of the dashboard to help readers navigate the tips in this article. In the video, I highlight the following resources:
Data Stories: Pathways to College in California When you visit the new Student Pathways Data Story, you are reminded that California leads the nation with the highest number of college-going students, with more than 2 million. "Yet, not all paths to a postsecondary education are linear." As a first-generation college graduate who faced numerous challenges to persist, pay for, and earn my first degree, I know firsthand that every student has a unique educational journey. When you access this tool to “Find your story,” you can explore outcomes for students related to degree intentions versus attainment and earnings. Two filters make this tool especially great for educational leaders:
The following are sets of questions that the tool answers through visuals and graphics:
In the section below, I will delve deeper into the use cases for school districts to utilize the 'By School District' filter. Explore this article for legislators, which describes how to use the 'By Legislative District' filter.  Source: https://c2c.ca.gov/cradle-to-career-dashboards/student-pathways-fact-sheet-for-school-districts/ Drawing Pathways to College for my school district, ESUHSD WHY THIS MATTERS For school board members, information available in the dashboards can tell an important story about the post-high school journeys of your graduates. When evaluating past Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) and preparing for the next Plan, this dashboard can quickly report on the experiences of students from your specific district by comparing actual outcomes to original goals. From there, school board members may consider realigning expenditures planned in school district budgets to support the implementation of improved or new strategies that move the needle closer to college and career goals for graduates. For example, if students are not completing 2- and 4-year degrees and certificates at the intended benchmarks, the board may consider increasing investments in pre-college advisors, programs, and partnerships to support this goal. Check out C2C’s Student Pathways Fact Sheet for School Districts for more information. As a local advocate serving my East San José community, the school district I graduated from in 2000 is the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). I have the privilege of working with students from ESUHSD because of the programs I volunteer for, such as San José Cal-SOAP's Cash for College financial aid workshops. Since returning home in 2013, I have followed the outcomes for ESUHSD students, having to rely on various disconnected resources. This new dashboard and visualization tool provides a one-stop shop for AGGREGATE data, is user-friendly, and frames the information as responses to intuitive questions. Note that for all visualizations, you can:
As a Superintendent or school board member, when you access this tool to “Find your story,” select the filter 'By School District' filter. For this use case, I will share the data for ESUHSD as of April 23, 2025.  Source: https://c2c.ca.gov/data-stories/pathways-to-college-in-california/ Step #1 After selecting the filter, select the School District. I typed a keyword and selected East Side Union High from a pre-populated list of districts. HOW IT WORKS: Whenever you see a feature like this in a tool or webpage, it is called “autocomplete” or “type-look-ahead.” Step #2 The third optional filter is Student Population, and you can only select ONE (1) from a pre-set list of options listed here. I selected 'Race/Ethnicity - Asian' with my lens as a LEAD Filipino board member.
HOW IT WORKS: I drilled down to “Asian,” hoping to understand the experience of Filipino students, but this data point was not available. I infer that the data source does not allow disaggregation by Asian subgroups, such as Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc., at this point for this visualization. Step #3 Click on the Apply Filters button. When applied, the button text will update to Filters Applied, and every chart below will be updated accordingly. The following are screenshots and insights I gained from these filters.  How have California students navigated to and through college? In the above visualization, we can explore the different educational paths of Californians who graduated from public high schools over eight years (2014-2015 to 2022-2023). QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
#1 ESUHSD Asian students took different paths after graduating from high school:
#2 Post-high-school/college outcomes for ESUHSD Asian students varied:
DATA HEADERS
 Who enrolls in college? In the above visualization, we can explore a snapshot of first-time college enrollment broken down by demographic for students who first enrolled in the SELECTED academic year. You can apply two optional filters. Otherwise, the data selected is for All Institution Types for the 2022-2023 Enrollment Year by default. Additional Step #A: Choose an Enrollment Year Enrollment Year is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). I chose the most recent data.
Additional Step #B: Choose an Institution Type Institution Type is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). The options are listed here. I selected CA Public 2-Year College. Note that after choosing a filter, give the tool a few moments to update the visualization.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
#1 CA students accessed 2-year colleges at different rates:
#2 ESUHSD students accessed 2-year colleges at different rates with similar gaps:
DATA HEADERS
 What types of degrees do students earn? In the above visualization, we can explore students' degrees and awards from California public colleges to understand better how they take advantage of the many paths to earning credentials after high school. You can apply one optional filter; otherwise, the selected data defaults to All Award Years. Additional Step #A: Choose an Award Year Award Year is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). I chose the most recent data.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
#1 ESUHSD Asian students leveraged all of the different pathways after graduating from high school:
#2 Post-high-school/college outcomes for ESUHSD Asian students varied:
DATA HEADERS
 Once students enroll in college, how long does it take them to graduate? In the above visualization, we can explore how long it takes ESUHSD students to complete their degrees based on when they first enrolled in college and when they earned their degree. There are two optional filters that you can apply; otherwise, the selected data defaults to Community College Certificates for the 2022-2023 Enrollment Year. They offer the note: "For students who attend multiple institutions or transfer, this means that the full length of their degree journey is not included in the current version of this chart. Future dashboards will explore the transfer journey in more detail." Additional Step #A: Choose an Award Year Award Year is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). I chose the most recent data.
Additional Step #B: Choose an Award Type Award Type is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). The options are listed here. I selected Bachelor’s Degree - Transfer Students. Note that after choosing a filter, give the tool a few moments to update the visualization.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
#1 ESUHSD Asian students take a median of 3 years to receive their award:
#2 Post-high-school/college outcomes for ESUHSD Asian students varied:
DATA HEADERS
 What about students who work while they are enrolled in college? The above visualization illustrates the number of ESUHSD students who worked while enrolled in college. There are two filters that you can apply, and one is required. Otherwise, the data selected for the 2022-2023 Academic Year will be presented as Percent Working by default. Additional Step #A: Choose an Academic Year Academic Year is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). I chose the most recent data.
Additional Step #B: Choose a Percent Working Percent Working or Earnings is a required filter with one (1) preselected option. I did not alter the default selection to see the percentages, and I also toggled to Earnings. QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
ESUHSD Asian students work while in college at high rates:
DATA HEADERS
 How much do students earn after they graduate? In the above visualization, we can explore how much ESUHSD graduates and certificate earners earn over time, such as the median annual earnings of college graduates every year for up to five years after earning their award. There is one optional filter that you can apply; otherwise, the selected data defaults to the 2022-2023 Award Year. Additional Step #A: Choose an Award Year Award Year is an optional filter; you can only select one (1). I chose the most recent data.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED
INSIGHTS GAINED
Data is not available for 2+ years. ESUHSD Asian students earned between $0 and $53K 1 year after earning a degree or certificate:
DATA HEADERS
Data Meets Practice: Drawing Pathways to my Community College
To close, I hope that school board members and community advocates will explore the Student Pathways Dashboard for their local school district to gain a better understanding of what happens to their high school graduates. For the next articles in the "Data Meets Practice" series, check out: AdvancED Tips When exploring this tool with the community, consider using it to engage in design thinking conversations. Check out this article from California Competes on how they co-created solutions with East San Jose residents. Want to dig even deeper? Check out the following resources from the CA Cradle-to-Career Data System:
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