Building California’s P20W Data System

This Q&A is part of an SDP Blog series profiling members of the SDP Fellowship Cohort 15. All posts from this series may be found here.

Q&A with Julie Liao & Ryan Estrellado at the California Cradle-to-Career Data System, a Cohort 15 SDP Fellowship Partner Agency

Julie Liao is a Cohort 15 (2023-2025) SDP Fellow at the California Cradle-to-Career Data System (C2C), a statewide longitudinal data system that provides tools to help students reach their goals and delivers information on education and workforce outcomes. Read more about C2C here. We recently caught up with Julie and her supervisor, Ryan Estrellado, a Cohort 11 SDP Fellow alumnus and the C2C Director of Data Programs, to learn more about their exciting and impactful work.

Ryan, can you tell us about the history and importance of C2C?

Ryan: C2C aims to connect the California public and organizations with trusted information about important milestones that Californians reach on their journey from early care to K–12 to higher education, skills training, and employment. Legislation passed in 2019 called for the creation of a statewide, longitudinal data system for California. After that, a planning process that included more than 200 people from 15 state agencies and many educational institutions, research and policy organizations, and community groups worked together to design a blueprint for the California Cradle-to-Career Data System.

Julie, can you tell us about your role at C2C?

Julie: As a member of the Data Programs team, I have been focusing on C2C’s mission to expand the P20W dataset in a way that empowers the public’s access to meaningful data. This includes maintaining, documenting, and expanding data points related to the state’s P20W dataset. I work closely with data providers, define data points as guided by research questions, update documentation, and coordinate across both internal and external teams. This role has allowed me to explore and develop a new set of skills that haven’t been used much during my doctoral training, which has been rewarding.

Tell us more about your capstone project.

Julie: My capstone project is to develop a guide that captures how the C2C office has been building California’s P20W data system in its day-to-day execution. By conducting semi-structured interviews with team members, the goal is to describe and synthesize key themes that have enabled the four verticals within the team to implement high-level requirements from the statute with efficiency, transparency, and integrity. 

What impact do you hope to see as a result of the capstone project when it is completed?

Julie: It is my hope that the guide will serve as an opportunity for the C2C office to reflect on the work done so far, and as a resource for states who are planning to build or modernize their P20W data systems.

Ryan: I am looking forward to seeing Julie’s capstone project provide helpful clarity about the work that leadership and staff at P20W data systems do to bridge from planning concepts to day-to-day execution. In the short term, Julie’s capstone will help our office reflect on the work we’ve done so far and empower us to develop our ideas about what it takes to build a P20W data system. In the long term, I hope Julie’s capstone serves as inspiration and a foundation that other leaders and staff working on P20W data systems can use to get their project off the ground.

What excites you most about your job?

Julie: This role has allowed me to realize how much I enjoy managing and coordinating projects. The projects we work on can be quite complex, so when our data providers walk away from a meeting feeling clear on goals, action items, and timelines, it gives me a sense of fulfillment. As a result, I am motivated to execute each meeting with a planned agenda, defined goals, crafted slides, clear notes, and timely post-meeting summaries. Although these are all small things, I believe they make partnering with us a little smoother for our data providers, which will enable our data system to better serve the California public in the long run. 

What has been the most meaningful experience from your participation in the SDP Fellowship so far?

Julie: I have really enjoyed conversations with people in the SDP network, whether it was through in-person convenings, working group check-ins, Fellow Friday events, or check-in meetings with Expert Advisors. Whether it was getting to know each other at a personal level or learning/discussing a data topic of interest, these conversations continue to fuel my passion for working in the field of education data.

How has the SDP Fellowship strengthened the analytic capacity of your agency?

Ryan: We hired Julie to be our SDP Fellow, and in her time here she has already done so much to help us develop our processes and drive our work forward. I’d like to highlight Julie’s work on expanding our data system to include additional variables. To accomplish this, Julie designed and executed a process to onboard new data partners, identify relevant research questions, identify related variables, and facilitate the creation of technical documentation needed to import new variables. She also coordinates the necessary governance, documentation, and data import work streams required to make these new variables a part of C2C’s P20W data system. The result is a data system that is evolving to better serve the California public.