Governor Newsom celebrates four years of connecting education and workforce insights thanks to Cradle-to-Career

SACRAMENTO – In July 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to establish the California Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System within the Government Operations Agency. In the four years since, C2C has achieved exciting milestones, launching a first-of-its-kind informational tool to help students better understand their options for education and career planning in April 2025.

“Over the last four years, Cradle-to-Career has made massive strides in their work to connect available data and existing information to the students who can use it to leverage their careers. I look forward to what comes next and the achievements California’s future leaders will accomplish.”

“In just four years, California’s official data system became a model for inclusive decision-making, meaningful community engagement, and unprecedented collaboration,” said Mary Ann Bates, Executive Director at the California Cradle-to-Career Data System. “Californians deserve tools for their education and career planning that reflect their experiences. We started by listening first, and then building a dashboard based on what people said they needed. We continue to learn from the input people are sharing as they explore the Student Pathways data dashboard.”

Cradle-to-Career

The system is overseen by a 21-member governing board representing perspectives across the state, along with processes that ensure substantial public representation. The Cradle-to-Career Data System links existing education, workforce, financial aid and social service information to better equip policy makers, educators and the public to close opportunity gaps and improve outcomes for all students throughout the state. Public dashboards and other tools provide transparency into how students are educated and enter the workforce, along with corresponding insights into how policies and programs can better serve more students and families.

What comes next

Cradle-to-Career is providing timely, accurate, and reliable information on education and workforce outcomes. Hearing from researchers who are eager to dive deeper into the dashboard, C2C will launch the first phase of its Query Builder tool by the end of 2025. The Query Builder complements the Student Pathways Dashboard by providing users with the ability to explore the information powering the dashboard. The Query Builder rollout will occur in phases, with new features building on previous releases. You can learn more about that work HERE.

How we got here

Over the course of 2020 and the first half of 2021, more than 200 people from 15 state agencies and many educational institutions, research and policy organizations, and community groups worked together to design a blueprint for the California Cradle-to-Career Data System. You can learn more about their work HERE.