Data Sharing Success Stories

Since 2015, the California Department of Education (CDE) has entered into several dozen data sharing MOUs with other California state agencies, non-profits, and universities from around the country. This is a summary of some key collaborations highlighting the impact of sharing CDE student-level data upon education research and education policy work.

Children’s Data Network (CDN): Since 2018, the CDE and CDN have partnered on a large longitudinal research project linking students’ K-12 information with data collected from other California state agencies including the California Department of Public Health, the Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Social Services, and others. This project, titled: “Beating the Odds: Exploring Resilience Among Local Control Funding Formula [LCFF]-Identified Subpopulations” explores the early experiences of California’s children and the services they receive that shape later outcomes, including in schools. In doing so, this project identifies the factors that place children at risk of poorer outcomes and pinpoint those that buffer risk with the goal of directly informing policy and practice at state and county agencies.

Recently, a peer-reviewed and open-source article, The Children’s Data Network (CDN) : Harnessing the Scientific Potential of Linked, Administrative Data to Inform Children’s Programs and Policies, was published, and the journal also posted a blog summarizing the work. More information about CDN’s ongoing work can be found on the Children's Data Network web site.

California Student Aid Commission (CSAC): Over the past 5 years, CSAC has received graduation data from the CDE to help 98,948 additional students become eligible for financial aid who would not have benefited from these programs without this data match. For more information about CSAC’s programs, visit the CSAC web site.

Learning Policy Institute (LPI): The CDE and LPI entered into a data sharing agreement in 2018 which allowed LPI to utilize CDE data to track teacher turnover and map learning outcomes across California to identify gaps in teacher and administrator qualifications and credentialing. Since the project’s inception, LPI has presented findings at multiple conferences and has published multiple papers based on this agreement. More information about LPI’s research agenda and publications can be found on LPI’s web site.

Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE): In 2017 and 2018, Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) worked with over one hundred researchers from across the nation to spearhead the follow-up project known as Getting Down to Facts II (GDTF II). The CDE provided data to several of the research teams focused on the topic areas of student success, governance, personnel, and finance. In addition to several conference proceedings, symposiums, presentations, and seminars, GDTFII produced 36 technical reports and 19 research briefs on California’s PreK-12 education system. More information about GDTF II’s work is available on the Getting Down to Facts web site.

University of California, Davis (UC Davis): Beginning in 2015, the UC Davis California Education Lab and the CDE received a federal grant award of $5 million from the Institute of Education Sciences to utilize CDE course and assessment data to determine how to best assist California grade 11 students in gauging whether or not they are prepared for college. As part of this project, UC Davis and the CDE have presented findings from this partnership project at multiple academic conferences and California Education Lab members and graduate students have published multiple peer-reviewed scholarly papers. Additionally, the project team has been heavily involved in preparing data from the National Student Clearinghouse to update the Post-Secondary Enrollment Data web page. A list of ongoing California Education Lab’s research projects is available at UC Davis School of Education web site.