Data key to ‘cradle to career’ educational success

“Cradle to career” was a frequent refrain of Gov.- elect Gavin Newsom along the campaign trail and for the right reasons. Californians do best when investment in their education comes at the very start and continues through college into adulthood. But California lags far behind other states in tracking those positive outcomes in a meaningful or consistent way.

Just like laying the foundation for a strong home, mountains of research show early learning serves as a foundation for a child’s successful trajectory through school and into the workforce. Understanding how best to build on that foundation will require an overhaul of our fragmented state data systems. Experts on both ends of the learning continuum know solid, shareable information to assess the student experience before kindergarten and after high school in our state is spotty at best.

Newsom’s early learning and higher education platforms come at a vulnerable time for the future of California, as we prepare for the next generation’s workforce to shrink. In 1970, children made up 33 percent of California’s population; by 2030 that figure is expected to decline to just 21 percent, according to a report by Children Now. Coupled with a projected shift in the ratio of seniors to working-age adults, too few individuals will be prepared to fill the shoes of their predecessors in the workforce. In fact, California Competes has found the state will be short more than 2 million workers with a postsecondary credential by 2025. Sadly, many Californians won’t qualify for the great jobs our state produces.

Here’s why: From the beginning and at every significant transition point, our students face barriers in the educationto- employment pipeline. These barriers nudge then knock our children off paths to prosperity and pave the way for them to become adults who live on the wrong end of our state’s burgeoning income inequality. What should be a pipeline to opportunity instead becomes an intergenerational cycle of hardship that threatens our state’s position as the fifthlargest global economy.

Interventions are inconsistent and inequitable all along the way. Transitional kindergarten — a publicly funded early learning option for 4-year- olds not old enough to enter kindergarten in the fall — and high- quality preschool boost language, literacy and math skills. However, only half of all 3- and 4-year- olds in California attend preschool, disproportionately impacting kids of color, kids from low-income families, kids in foster care and dual language learners.

Later in life, we find fewer than half of California’s high school students graduate ready for a four-year university, and many who do enroll in college don’t make it through. The latest research from California Competes points out that 4 million Californians ages 25 to 64, a population as large as that of the city of Los Angeles, have completed college courses but left school without finishing a degree. These adults, like the kids, tend to be people of color and from low-income families.

Data provides the connective tissue between these two poles. California produces very little information on what makes an excellent education for our students. When information is collected, it is not uniform across districts or segments, nor is it shared from early childhood through postsecondary systems.

For California to maintain its position as an economic leader, comprehensive improvements must be made throughout our education system. This means breaking down walls that traditionally elevate one part of the system or one seg- ment of our population over others.

Given the ever- changing demographics of California, our state’s leaders must invest in modernizing data systems that will lay the groundwork for smart, strategic improvements with the broadest impact. A modernized data system will connect every stage of a Californian’s learning pathway, allowing us to close achievement gaps that currently threaten our esteemed position in the world economy.

California’s economic success will be determined by the action Gov.- elect Newsom and the incoming Legislature take for Californians at every point in the education-to- employment pipeline. Such success rests on how we prepare for the economic needs of tomorrow while meeting the learning needs of our children and adults today.