California's Cradle-to-Career (C2C) office has released Pathways to College in California, the first product of the long-awaited data system. The dashboard consists of six charts detailing the paths students take from high school graduation through college and into the workforce. These data, and the C2C system more broadly, provide policymakers, advocates, and researchers-as well as individual students and their families-with clear, connected information to help them make better decisions about schooling and careers.

This initial release focuses on the state's high school graduates from the 2014-15 school year, tracking their outcomes up to 2022-23. It shows whether a student went to a California public college and where, what degree was earned, employment, earnings, and more. The student pathways chart shows that fewer than one in four high school graduates earn a degree from the University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU). These data, however, do not include Californians who enroll in private or out-of-state colleges-about one in six college enrollees.

The other five charts offer additional insights. For example, half of students-at both two-year and four-year colleges-work jobs while in school. Also, community college graduates who earned certificates had higher wages than those with associate degrees in the first few years after graduation.

In addition to the Pathways to College dashboard, there are plans to produce dashboards on outcomes in K-12 education, child care, social services, and more. Over time, the C2C plans to add new and historical data from its ever-growing list of data providers.

Insights like the ones highlighted here are made possible by the C2C's connecting of information across data sources. How much do California students who go to a community college, transfer to a four-year university, and graduate with a bachelor's degree earn annually? Although the question is straightforward, the answer depends on linkages between information from several agencies: the California Community Colleges, either or both of the UC or CSU, and the Employment Development Department.

In the past, connections like these have been made through one-off agreements between researchers and agencies. The C2C's integration of data from early childhood to early career, however, would be a massive, accessible expansion of what we can know-and thus improve, through research, advocacy, and policy-about the experiences of California's young people.