Across the United States, there is an increased interest in improving school climate, reflecting a deepening understanding of the foundational role that school climate can play in supporting students' well-being, learning, and development. School climate is constructed from norms, expectations, and interpersonal relationships that come together to…

As California invests in early learning and care, the state is also moving forward with a long-overdue plan to build a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) -- known as the Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System -- which will eventually connect data over time and across sectors like education, health, human services, and the workforce. This is a…

This manuscript describes the use of real data applied to a fictional real-estate firm for teaching data visualization to university students. In the case study, students employ data analytic techniques in Tableau to clean, organize, and analyze real estate data. By creating visualizations, students address several questions about how selling…

In recent years, career and technical education (CTE) programs that include quality work-based learning (WBL) opportunities for students have gained significant traction among educators, policymakers, and stakeholders as an effective way to prepare students for the labor market. However, a lack of data on WBL--which many CTE students participate…

Five years ago, California's education data lagged far behind the systems in most other states. However, state leaders and education advocates undertook a purposeful engagement and design process to build a data system that represents the state's values and meets different stakeholders' needs. This case study on California's P-20W Cradle-to-Career…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations increased virtual programming and adoption of online technologies. This article outlines the University of California assessment of tools for gathering data on participant learning outcomes from virtual educational programs. After assessing colleagues' experiences and searching for new web applications,…

Higher education leaders have repeatedly called for improved diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, but many institutions continue to fall short. Data can play an integral role in this work; key among them are data on student demographics, including race/ethnicity. Meeting diversity, equity, and inclusion goals requires a thorough and nuanced…

Background: This study describes a method for harmonizing data collected with different tools to compute a rating of compliance with national recommendations for school physical activity (PA) and nutrition environments. Methods: We reviewed questionnaire items from 84 elementary schools that participated in the Childhood Obesity Research…

This article describes the motivation and design for introductory coursework in computation aimed at midcareer professionals who desire to work in data science and analytics but who have little or no background in programming. In particular, we describe how we use modern interactive computing platforms to accelerate the learning of our students…

Many important voices--including The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the Dana Center's Launch Years initiative, and others--advocate for expanding the traditional course offerings in high school mathematics and statistics to include courses such as the Introduction to Data Science (IDS). To date, the research on the IDS course…

State legislators have the opportunity to create and support legislation that positions data as a tool to help decisionmakers at all levels take action to support student success. This checklist can serve as a guide to crafting legislation that addresses education data. It applies specifically to education data legislation which includes bills…

Many educators in California are unaware of just how harmful out of school suspensions can be. When suspended students are barred from attending school, more often than not, the rule broken was some form of minor misconduct. This update of "Lost Instruction Time in California Schools" demonstrates that despite the important efforts by…

Across the nation, community colleges have expanded dual enrollment programs to increase college enrollment and completion, particularly among historically underserved populations. The California Community College system--the largest system in the nation--is no different and recently expanded its dual enrollment programming to include College and…

"Beyond Good Intentions" provides a guide for states to craft equity-driven policies that are specific, actionable, measurable and well funded. It outlines four major steps states should take when considering and creating new policy: (1) Examine the Data to Set the Goal for the Policy: Specific types of data to consider when identifying…

A commonly used metric for measuring college costs, drawn from data in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. This article discusses an error in this per FTE calculation when using IPEDS data, especially with regard to community colleges. The problem is that expenditures…