In 2012, California community college career and technical education practitioners asked for access to information on program-level course, completion, and employment outcomes to better identify whether colleges were addressing regional workforce needs. This resulted in the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office hiring WestEd to build the LaunchBoard – a suite of interactive dashboards that tie California’s educational reform efforts to student data. Now covering all types of community college programs, the dashboards provide enrollment, progress, completion, employment, labor market, and equity data to help college faculty and leadership continuously improve instruction, services, and outcomes. The LaunchBoard provides two types of dashboards–planning tools and accountability tools–at https://www.calpassplus.org/Launchboard/Home.aspx.
Planning Tools
Planning tools offer data points aligned to specific types of student journeys, integrate infographics designed to support data conversations, and provide powerful disaggregation, aggregation, and comparison features.
Community College Pipeline: provides college-level, regional, and statewide information for every program in the California community college system. Users can view annual information and time trends on course offerings, student demographics, milestone attainment, completion of awards, transfer, employment, earnings, and labor market information. The dashboard also features equity gap analyses, comparisons to other programs, and the most successful programs in the state.
Adult Education Pipeline: provides institution, consortium, regional, and statewide information on adult learners enrolled in K12 adult education and community college noncredit programs. Users can view annual information and time trends on enrollment, progress, postsecondary transition, completion, and employment. The dashboard includes the ability to make comparisons across programs, see results disaggregated by demographics, and to view results based on adult education program type.
Accountability Tools
Accountability tools provide information on reform initiatives and success frameworks.
Student Success Metrics: captures key institutional outcomes based on students’ educational goals, including building foundational adult education/ESL skills, pursuing short-term programs that build career skills, and attainment of a two- or four-year degree. The dashboard is aligned to the system’s Vision for Success and the state’s performance funding formula.
Strong Workforce Program: provides data on metrics associated with a dedicated funding stream and related performance funding model for career education programs in the community college system.
Guided Pathways: provides first-year progress indicators such as the number of units completed, whether students passed transferrable math and English courses, and the number of students enrolled full-time.
K-12 Strong Workforce Program: examines CTE system engagement and high school graduation for K-12 students at institutions awarded K-12 SWP funding.
In addition to building the dashboards, WestEd provides extensive assistance to the field on using the data, including creating guides, videos, and infographics; providing keynote addresses, day-long workshops, and conference break-out sessions; and offering technical assistance to colleges and regions on planning activities.
