Data for All: The Promise of California’s Cradle-to-Career Data System

Mary Ann Bates is Executive Director of the State of California’s new Cradle-to-Career Data System. This statewide data system will provide tools to help students reach their goals and deliver information on education and workforce outcomes. Its vision is to foster evidence-based decision-making to help Californians build more equitable futures and empower individuals to reach their full potential. Mary Ann previously served as a senior fellow at the White House Office of Management and Budget and as the Executive Director of J-PAL North America at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She began her life in Ohio's Amish community and started her college experience via dual enrollment at Kent State University Tuscarawas. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kathy Booth is Project Director for Educational Data & Policy at WestEd and staffs WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility, where she leads projects that help translate data into action. Her current projects include documenting how states are modernizing their linked data sets to strengthen equitable outcomes, measuring systems change efforts to broaden participation in STEM, and delivering technical assistance to community colleges on using labor market information to develop stronger pathways to living wages. Previously, she served as the Process Facilitator for the development of the California Cradle to Career Data System and supported the Guided Pathways movement. For over five years, she served as the Project Manager and architect for the LaunchBoard, a suite of dashboards that make data on student progress, completion, employment, and earnings outcomes available to educators for the purpose of program improvement. She also helps to map data across systems, including crosswalking K- 12 and community college offerings, tracing adult education pathways from K-12 to community colleges, documenting educational pathways to employment, and aligning data captured by educational institutions and social service agencies that support workforce development. In her previous role as Executive Director of the RP Group, she led research and technical assistance projects in the areas of multiple measures, skills-builder pathways, and student support.

Dr. Tessa Carmen De Roy is the founder and president of the California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI), which seeks to smooth the path to college and career for California students and unify the efforts of the institutions that serve them.

Combining data-driven tools and infrastructure with capacity building and student-focused curricula, CCGI helps to promote equity in public education, remove obstacles to student success, and close the gaps between California’s K-12, higher education, and financial aid systems. Through CaliforniaColleges.edu, CCGI provides data-informed tools that help students explore academic and vocational goals, make plans for how to achieve them, and launch and track public college and financial aid applications. Founded in 2013, CCGI supports districts serving one in five California 6th-12th grade students.

Before founding CCGI, Dr. De Roy spent a decade focused on issues related to college access and success for first-generation, college-bound students in Los Angeles County. Through her involvement with the development of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, which simplifies the financial aid process for millions of students and families by importing tax information directly into the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), she developed an interest in using data and technology to lower barriers for students all along their educational paths.

Dr. De Roy received her Doctor of Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she focused on data-supported regional efforts to articulate high school and college coursework.

Dr. Christopher J. Nellum is the Executive Director of The Education Trust–West, an evidence-driven advocacy organization committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. He has led successful advocacy efforts to ensure equity in the K-12 accountability system, create a statewide cradle-to-career data system, address food insecurity for college students, ensure that every high school senior completes a financial aid application before they graduate, and defend fairness in college admissions. Before joining Ed Trust–West, Nellum was at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, Young Invincibles, and the American Council on Education. Chris serves on several statewide committees, including a recent gubernatorial appointment, the advisory boards of the New Leadership Academy and GENup, and the Board of Directors of the James B. McClatchy Foundation and Swipe Out Hunger. Nellum completed his undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara, master’s degree at CSU Long Beach, and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter at @chrisnellum.