California's information about opportunities and outcomes in early learning and care, TK-12 schools, colleges, social services, and employment is currently disconnected. A longitudinal data system can be a powerful tool that allows California to identify bright spots, inequities, and roadblocks in our educational system, especially for students of…

In 2019, California passed legislation that called for the creation of its longitudinal data system, the Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System. Since then, the state has allocated $40.52 million in funding to support the agency's efforts. Given the substantial state investment and the potential for more, better, and accessible data to answer critical…

For more than a decade, states have evaluated school performance largely through a single measure--test scores--and rated schools on whether they improved students' performance in reading or math. The idea was to focus schools' attention on the outcomes that mattered most and to focus states' attention on the schools that needed the most help in…

We compared the performance of Hispanic students from California, Texas, and Arizona on the two Advanced Placement (AP) English exams (i.e., English Language and Composition and English Literature and Composition) using archival data from the College Board from 1997 through 2012. Pearson chi-square tests yielded statistically significant…

Higher education institutions increasingly utilize learning management systems (LMS) to teach courses and programs in hybrid or online-only formats. Providing information literacy instruction in these emerging digital environments poses challenges to librarians as the delivery of instruction requires familiarity with navigating an LMS and…

The Claremont Colleges Library Instruction Services Department developed a quiz that could be integrated into the consortial learning management software to accompany a local online, open-source information literacy tutorial. The quiz is integrated into individual course pages, allowing students to receive a grade for completion and improving…

There is extensive research on the benefits of making data-informed decisions to improve learning, but these benefits rely on the data being effectively interpreted. Despite educators' above-average intellect and education levels, there is evidence many educators routinely misinterpret student data. Data analysis problems persist even at districts…

The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of the Blackboard and Skype-based electronic mentoring system for beginning teachers. The Quality Teachers for Quality Students project developed an electronic mentoring system between beginning teachers and experienced teachers to support beginning teachers' instructional and classroom…

In the late 1600s, British physicist Sir Isaac Newton first demonstrated refraction and dispersion in a triangular prism. He discovered that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum. Hold a prism up to the light at the correct angle and white light magically splits into vivid colors of the rainbow! So what do prisms and rainbows have to…

In October 2009, California Digital Library (CDL), where the author serves as manager of strategic and project planning, jumped into the world of social networking by joining Twitter. From Twitter, the CDL staff publish the content of their monthly newsletter, "CDLINFO News," and also additional content created by CDL programs and…

Reliable and current data is the foundation upon which good public policymaking is built. While California collects a good deal of data on its teaching workforce, policymakers have lacked a state-level data and analysis system to provide answers to even some of the most basic questions: How many credential holders actually take jobs? In what types…