In October, the California Cradle-to-Career Data System (C2C) held its two fall Advisory Board meetings, on each of which UNITE-LA has appointed representatives. Both appointments span three-year terms, which began last fall. Dr. Lisa Catanzarite, UNITE-LA's vice president of Research and Evaluation, sits on the Data and Tools Advisory Board (DTAB), while Adam Gottlieb, UNITE-LA's director of Postsecondary Strategy and Policy, sits on the Community Engagement Advisory Board (CEAB).

The C2C Data System will be California’s source of actionable data and research on education, economic and health outcomes for individuals, families and communities. It is a vital new addition to the state infrastructure which will allow state personnel, researchers and individuals to make data-informed decisions and help navigate the education to employment pipeline. DTAB’s charge is to ensure the data elements, dashboards, query tools and deidentified research datasets provide actionable information for practitioners, students, families, adult learners, workers, CBOs, researchers and advocacy organizations. CEAB's charge is to create strong feedback loops with data users to support evidence-based decision making, analytical capacity, and equitable access to actionable information.

The annual October meetings include the second step of a process in which Advisory Board members and the public propose new metrics to include in the system (for DTAB) and new protocols for user engagement (for CEAB). The DTAB agreed to advance the top three proposals to the next stage of consideration. The winning proposals center on important metrics, critical to and aligned with UNITE-LA’s work in digital equity, college financial aid and dual-language learning, respectively. The proposals may be viewed at the following links:

• Digital Access to Learning
• Student Debt at California Colleges and Universities
• Weaving Disaggregated Multilingual Learner Data into C2C

The DTAB agreed to advance two proposals to the next stage of consideration. Both proposals center on strengthening the understanding of data systems tools and metrics. One proposal focuses on providing comprehensive data literacy tools and trainings to the public while the other, authored by UNITE-LA's Adam Gottlieb, focuses on CEAB members actively communicating the use and tools associated with the data system in their constituencies. Both proposals offer opportunities for data-related education and public participation in the use of the system. The proposals may be viewed at the following links:

• Data Literacy Outreach Tools
• Expansion of Constituent-Based Community Conversations

Over the coming months, C2C staff will conduct feasibility studies on these proposals. The outcome of these assessments will be reported back to the Advisory Boards in the spring, and pending those findings, these proposals, or some version of them are likely to be included in the C2C. For more information on this process or the C2C Data System, please reach out to UNITE-LA's representatives on the boards, Dr. Lisa Catanzarite or Adam Gottlieb.