Longitudinal Data Quality

California has made progress in tracking student achievement data from grades K-12, but still lags behind in tracking students as they transition from high school to post-secondary programs. This is a finding from the latest annual national survey of the Data Quality Campaign, (DQC), a non-profit organization founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and nine other foundations in 2005 to foster longitudinal data collection for policy making purposes. While California has improved its database to permit policy makers to identify schools that are excelling in student achievement, it has not yet incorporated student transcript data or links to post-secondary databases. Those activities are expected to support what the DQC calls "P-20/workforce" databases, which permit policy makers to see what aspects of education lead to specific job force outcomes.