From Analysis to Action: How States Can Use the College and Career Readiness Data Infrastructure Matrix to Improve Their Data Systems

State and local education agencies are under increasing pressure to improve students’ college and career readiness and to demonstrate those improvements, and data is a critical part of that work. Yet college and career readiness data are often fragmented across multiple agencies and systems and are not readily available in formats that support their use to inform policy and practice. This fragmentation stems from many factors, including the inherently longitudinal nature of tracking students’ longer-term college and career success across K-12, postsecondary, and workforce systems, as well as challenges related to how data systems are designed, governed, and used.

The College and Career Readiness Data Infrastructure Matrix and its accompanying visual summary tool, developed by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, are designed to help states reflect on and strengthen their data infrastructure, with the ultimate goal of improving students’ college and career outcomes. States can use the matrix to assess whether their data systems can be used to answer the practical college and career readiness questions leaders face, such as: Who has access to high-value pathways? Which pathways lead to postsecondary and workforce success? Where do students fall off track? Which programs should be scaled, redesigned, or better supported?

This document presents three illustrative cases of how states might use the matrix and visual summary tool to support ongoing conversations about the strengths and gaps of their current college and career readiness data infrastructure and to identify actionable areas for improvement. An appendix, “Resources from the Field,” offers state-based examples that are aligned to each use case.

The cases are fictional, but they are grounded in real challenges and patterns we have heard from and observed in states. They are not meant to prescribe a single approach; rather, they demonstrate the flexibility of the matrix and how it can be adapted to different purposes.

• Case 1: Setting Statewide Data System Priorities
  • Using a holistic review of data infrastructure to align statewide data priorities with state leadership goals around strengthening high school-to-postsecondary and career pathways.
• Case 2: Building Districts’ Capacity to Use Data
  • Building districts’ capacity to interpret and use college and career readiness and pathway data in everyday decisions, not just for accountability.
• Case 3: Streamlining User Access to Education-to-Workforce Data
  • Streamlining access to education‑to‑workforce data so that families, educators, and other stakeholders can easily find and connect information across agencies and systems to explore key college and career readiness questions.