2012-13 Data Submissions to the CDE

September 14, 2012

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

2012–13 Data Submissions to the California Department of Education

This letter provides an overview of the California Department of Education (CDE)
2012–13 data submissions for:

• The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS),
• The California Basic Educational Data System – Online Reporting System (CBEDS-ORA), and
• The Consolidated Application Reporting System (CARS).

The certification and amendment window deadlines for all submissions are summarized in Attachment 1 – Table 1 and will be posted soon on the CDE’s Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/dc/es/index.asp under the heading labeled “Data Submission Calendar for CALPADS, CBEDS-ORA, and the Consolidated Application Reporting System [CARS].”

The CDE will also extract student enrollment and exit data from the CALPADS Operational Data Store (ODS) periodically throughout the year to:

• Calculate the four-year graduation cohort rate used in the federal Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability measure; and
• Determine which students were continuously enrolled at the school or local educational agency (LEA), and which student test scores to “roll back” from an alternative education program (AEP) to the original LEA (as defined in the California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Sections 1039.2 and 1039.3) to calculate the Academic Performance Index (API).

Attachment 1 – Table 2 specifies the dates that student enrollment and exit data will be extracted from the CALPADS ODS to be used for these accountability purposes.

The data collected by the CDE are used to meet state or federal reporting requirements, in funding formula calculations, as factors in state and federal accountability measures, to prepopulate the Schools Accountability Report Card (SARC) template provided to LEAs, and to determine LEA eligibility to apply for various grants. Most data are also made public at the school and LEA level on DataQuest. The use of CALPADS enrollment and exit data in the accountability measures underscores the importance of keeping CALPADS up-to-date on a regular basis. Regularly updating CALPADS ensures that data are up-to-date when used for accountability purposes, eases the workload as certification deadlines approach, and provides LEAs access to current information on transferring students.  The CDE recommends that LEAs update enrollment and exit data in CALPADS on a bi-weekly basis, at a minimum.

IMPORTANT FALL DATA

The CALPADS Fall 1 data collection is particularly critical. Beginning on Fall Census Day, Wednesday, October 3, 2012, the 2012–13 CALPADS Fall 1 Annual Enrollment window opens, during which time LEAs and Independently Reporting Charter Schools (IRCs) may view and certify reports displaying their 2012–13 Census Day enrollment counts and 2011–12 graduate and dropout counts. This fall, LEAs will also certify a new Free and Reduced Price Meal (FRPM) report, which provides an unduplicated count of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The report will display all students reported by LEAs eligible for NSLP based on program records submitted by LEAs to CALPADS, or based on students’ direct certification, homeless, foster, or migrant statuses in CALPADS.

Official enrollment data are used for many purposes, including several enrollment-based funding calculations. Without official enrollment, LEAs may not be eligible to receive enrollment-based funding. The FRPM unduplicated student count is used to determine federal Title I and II entitlements for non-Provision 2 and 3 County Office of Education (COE) and Direct Funded Charter schools. The FRPM unduplicated “free meal” student count is used to determine Economic Impact Aid (EIA) entitlements for COEs serving juvenile court schools, and EIA designated small and rural districts. In addition, the FRPM student count is used to determine whether an LEA or school is eligible to apply for various grants.

When updating enrollment data, it is important to follow the procedures outlined in the CALPADS SSID and Enrollment Procedures, which provides LEAs with direction and guidance on data submission practices and business rules for submitting, updating, and maintaining high quality data in CALPADS. This document is posted at www.cde.ca.gov/calpads under the System Documentation link.

The certification deadline for the 2012–13 Fall 1 submission is December 19, 2012. The Fall 1 amendment window is December 20, 2012 through February 6, 2013, during which time LEAs may amend their Fall 1 data. LEAs and IRCs that fail to certify their 2012–13 CALPADS Fall 1 data by the February 6 amendment window deadline will have no official enrollment and FRPM eligible student counts for the 2012–13 school year and no official graduate or dropout data for the 2011–12 school year. LEAs that certify their Fall 1 data by the December 19, 2012 certification deadline will be provided a private preview during the amendment window of their preliminary enrollment, graduate and dropout counts and rates. This early preview will allow these LEAs to make further corrections before official enrollment, graduate, and dropout data are posted on DataQuest and viewable by the public.

Superintendent Data Certification

For the CALPADS submissions, after the CALPADS Administrator has completed the Level 1 certification, the superintendent or charter school administrator, or designee, must attest to the accuracy of the data on the certification reports by completing the Level 2 certification.

Once the 2012–13 Fall 1 submission begins, you may check the certification status of your LEA or IRC using the CALPADS County-level Certification Report, which will be available on the CDE CALPADS Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/calpads under the 2012–13 CALPADS Certification Report link. From the County-Level Certification Report Web page, select your county from the drop-down menu and click on the “Get Report” button. A report will be generated listing each LEA and IRC in your county that displays information about their CALPADS Fall 1 certification statuses. The report shows last year’s certified enrollment count, the number of enrollment records within CALPADS so far for the current year, the number of fatal errors, the anomaly percentage, and the certification status for each LEA and IRC in your county. In order to certify the CALPADS Fall 1 data, LEAs and IRCs must have zero fatal errors and an anomaly rate that is less than two percent. Reports are updated daily.

ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY FUNCTIONALITY IN CALPADS

The Assessment and Accountability functionality in CALPADS will be available this fall. Four years (2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12) of student-level Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR), California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), and California English Language Development Test (CELDT) assessment data will be available in CALPADS and viewable through reports and available as downloadable extracts. The reports will summarize assessment results by administration, with drill-downs to student level data. A CAHSEE report will be available that displays CAHSEE results for all currently enrolled students, displaying which sections (English language arts and math) students have or have not passed. Monthly CELDT reports will display student results as they are tested throughout the year. Student-level accountability reports will display which students were included and excluded from the Academic Performance Index (API) and AYP calculations, and it will display whether these students were excluded, and the reason why, such as that the students were not continuously enrolled.

The CDE will use CALPADS enrollment and exit data to determine students who are continuously enrolled. However, in this first year of implementation of the CALPADS Assessment and Accountability functionality, the CDE will utilize the student demographic and program participation data submitted on the Pre-ID for API and AYP calculations. The CALPADS student demographic and program participation data, however, will be displayed in the CALPADS reports and will be transitioned for use in the accountability calculations, emphasizing the importance of maintaining accurate and up-to-date data in CALPADS. Once CALPADS data are being used for accountability calculations, the amount of data submitted by LEAs to the assessment vendors on the Pre-ID will be reduced.

CLOSING REMARKS

I would like to thank you and your staff in advance for your efforts in submitting quality data to the CDE in a timely fashion. The CDE recognizes that LEAs continue to face resource constraints and that the transition to CALPADS, CBEDS-ORA and CARS data systems likely required some changes in local processes. However, now that these major systems are nearly fully implemented, the CDE is committed to working on enhancements to make them easier to use and to add value to your work. My staff are eager to work with your staff to get this work completed on time. If you have any questions, please contact:

• CARS Service Desk by e-mail at conappsupport@cde.ca.gov.
• CBEDS ORA by e-mail at eddemo@cde.ca.gov
• CALPADS Service Desk by phone at 916-325-9210 or by e-mail at
  calpads-support@cde.ca.gov.
• Academic Accountability Unit by phone at 916-319-0863 or by e-mail at aau@cde.ca.gov .

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Keric Ashley, Director
Educational Data Management Division

Attachment 1 - Table 1 (represented in 3 tables here [Fall-Winter, Spring, and EOY] to maximize Web accessiblity)

2012–13 CALPADS, CBEDS-ORA, CARS Submission Calendar

FALL-WINTER CALENDAR:

*CDIF = County District Information Form
**SIF = School Information Form

SPRING CALENDAR:

END-OF-YEAR (EOY) CALENDAR:

Attachment 1 - Table 2

*These data will also be used to calculate the 2012 Base API for the 2012–13 Accountability Cycle.