Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This week EdSource published my commentary, “California needs a better education data system but who will manage it?” A statewide longitudinal data system would allow California to diagnose its challenges in education, invest wisely in solutions, and then assess the impact of those investments. However, such a data system should be built with clear direction on leadership and oversight.
The state must house the data system in an independent agency to ensure that it elevates the needs of students, workers, and the state’s economy across sectors rather than in fragments. Fortunately, another policy conversation is underway around the need for an impartial entity that can improve coordination and planning in education.
Stronger coordination and better data are two critical elements that will modernize California’s higher education system and help it to better serve millions of Californians who are currently missing out on the economic and social mobility that comes with earning a college certificate or degree from our prized institutions.
I urge you to read the op-ed and learn more in The Case for a Statewide Higher Education Coordinating Entity and Out of the Dark: Bringing California’s Education Data into the 21st Century.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in our work. We’d love to continue the conversation with you. Please reach out to me directly if you’d like to explore these issues together more deeply, and I urge you to share this message with those you know who are also interested in data, state coordination, and the connections between the two.
Warmly,
Ria Sengupta Bhatt
Interim Executive Director
California Competes
