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Annual Performance Report Measures

Short summaries of special education program and student outcome data for California school districts.

Overall Purpose

The Special Education Annual Performance Report Measures are a series of reports by the California Department of Education (CDE) to disseminate educational data and improve the quality of education for all students, with an emphasis on students with disabilities.

These reports are required by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) [20 U.S.C. 1416(b)(2)(C)(ii) and 34 CFR 300.602] and are directly connected to the CDE's Goals, Quality Assurance Process, and Focused Monitoring of special education programs. This is the seventh year reports have been prepared. Beginning this year, the report format has been changed to better align with the California Special Education Part B State Performance Plan (SPP) (DOC; 2MB; 129pp.) and the subsequent Part B Annual Performance Report (APR) ( DOC; 2MB ; 149pp.). District reports based on data from school year 2005-06 are available at the bottom of this page.

The performance report measures mirror the measures reported in the SPP and APR. In addition to the SPP and APR, these measures are used to determine the compliance status of each district as required by IDEA and to select districts, each year, for participation in the Focused Monitoring process. Detailed descriptions of the data elements used to calculate the measures are available in the SPP and APR. For some of the required measures, the number of students served at the district level is too small for meaningful calculations, or districts are not the providers of the data. Those measures are reported at the Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA) level. The specific data and calculations underlying the results for an individual district or SELPA are available upon request from the Focused Monitoring and Technical Assistance consultant for that district or SELPA, as is a printed copy of the report.

STAR Results

Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) results for students receiving special education services are included in the data reports. The California Standards Tests (CST) results are used in general education (GE) assessment programs along with the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) given to students with significant cognitive disabilities and (for students in grade 10) the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

Data Measures

The quality assurance measures related to student assessment use the STAR (CST, CAPA and CAHSEE) data and closely align with the measures required by federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (Outside Source) legislation.

The CDE has used a system of targets and benchmarks in assessing the performance and progress of individual districts. In order to align the assessment of special education in California more closely with the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) portion of NCLB and meet the requirements of IDEA, annual targets have been set for each measure. For compliance-based measures the annual target is set to require full compliance, either at either zero or 100%, depending on the requirements of the measure.

The 14 SPP Indicators and five additional California measures found in the 2005-06 performance reports should not be viewed as the sole determinants of the quality of a district's special education program. In addition to the uses outlined above, the reports provide information that can be used by local school officials and others to help them examine their programs and focus efforts in areas most in need of improvement. Small year-to-year changes are to be expected and may merely reflect the normal ebb and flow of the educational process. Large differences may reflect a systemic difference in the special education program and may also result from changes in the data gathering and reporting process in the district. In any event, the meaning of any changes can only be determined by a closer examination, at the district level, of the activities that underlie each measure.

Data Calculations

Calculations may be affected by the placement in licensed children's institutions (LCI) of children whose residences were other than the current district. When students are placed in LCIs, their school district of residence sometimes changes to the district in which the LCI is located. LCI placements may affect the proportion of children in one or more of the measures because the calculations are based on district of residence.

In the past, a very small number of districts noted that the data they reported to CDE contained errors. None of the known errors is large enough to appreciably distort measures at the state level, but they could make a difference for some individual districts. Measurements for districts are not included when the volume of errors in the data submitted precludes calculation of the measure or measures. For the Indictor 3 measures, a "--" symbol in a block indicates there were too few students to calculate a meaningful measure; for all other indicators and measures, a "N/C" indicates there were too few students to calculate a meaningful measure. A "N/A" indicates that the measure is not applicable to the district (e.g., graduation percent for an elementary district). A zero indicates the calculated value for that measure is zero. For example, a "N/C" in measure 5A indicates there were fewer than 20 students receiving special education in that district; a zero in the same block would indicate none of the 20 or more receiving special education in that district are educated with their nondisabled peers more than 20 percent of the time.

Questions on reported data should be directed to the school district. In some instances, the district may have become aware of problems in the data submitted to CDE and now have more accurate figures available. In some cases, what could appear to be inaccurate data is merely a reflection of unique circumstances in a particular program or community.

Acronyms,Terms, Measurements, and Definitions

Acronym/Term	Definition
Active	Student not reported as exited during the year.
AMO	Annual Measurable Objective.
Annual Benchmark	The annual performance expectation for a measure; the Annual Measurable Objective.
API	The California Academic Performance Index measures the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic measures.
APR	The Annual Performance Report (DOC; 1.42MB; 136pp.) detailing areas of progress and slippage on the goals set out in the State Performance Plan.
AYP	Adequate Yearly Progress toward NCLB targets.
CAPA	California Alternate Performance Assessment is the development and implementation of an alternate assessment for children with severe cognitive disability
CASEMIS	California Special Education Management Information System (DOC; 3MB; 109pp.) is a database of individual student records provided by SELPA twice each year to CDE.
CBEDS	California Basic Educational Data System is a school-level aggregate database of information provided once each year by districts to CDE.
CDE	California Department of Education.
COE	County Office of Education in California.
CST	California Standards Tests is the official measure of progress toward meeting state academic content standards.
DataQuest	Additional data about students receiving special education services are available on the CDE DataQuest Web site.
Exit	An exiting student is one who is no longer eligible for, or no longer receiving, special education.
FMTA	Focused Monitoring and Technical Assistance Units are responsible for coordinating all monitoring and technical assistance activities for the districts and SELPAs, providing information, and facilitating access to technical assistance related to program monitoring and program implementation.
GE	General Education, for this report, includes all students in grades one - twelve receiving publicly-supported education at the secondary education level and below . Students receiving special education are a subset of General Education.
IDEA 2004	Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (Outside Source) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.
IEP	Individualized Education Program
LEA	Local Education Agency, typically school districts and County Offices of Education in California.
LRE	Least Restrictive Environment.
NCLB	No Child Left Behind Federal NCLB Web site (Outside Source) California's NCLB Web site
OSEP	Office of Special Education Programs (Outside Source) of the USDOE.
SE	Special Education provides specialized education and services to students with disabilities assessed as eligible under IDEA 2004. The OSEP defines Kindergarten as a preschool program and groups all five-year olds under the preschool definition.
SED	Special Education Division's Home Web Page of the California Department of Education.
SELPA	Special Education Local Plan Area is the service area covered by a special education local plan which identifies each participating LEA's roles and responsibilities for the provision of special education and related services within the service area.
SPP	California's State Performance Plan (DOC; 1.9MB; 129pp.) for monitoring and improving special education in the state.
STAR	Standardized Testing and Reporting test results are used for student and school accountability purposes
USDOE	United States Department of Education. (Outside Source)

Data Terms and Definitions

Data Term	Definition
<	Less than the stated value.
>	More than the stated value.
<=	Less than or equal to the stated value.
>=	More than or equal to the stated value.
GE 17 Grades	Data displayed are from the fall CBEDS data submissions. Since age groupings are not available in CBEDS, counts of students in grades one - twelve are displayed.
SE 15 Ages	Data displayed are from the December CASEMIS submissions. The federal government requires reporting of students receiving special education by age grouping. Age five students in Kindergarten are considered preschool students for these calculations.
Improved over last year	For each measure, indicates whether or not the district improved, that is moved closer to the AMO or annual target.
Met Target	For each measure, indicates whether or not the district successfully met or was better than the target value for the year. For Indicator 3, a value of "Yes*" indicates that the district was credited with meeting the target through an adjustment. AYP provides more detailed district descriptions of how adjustments were made.
N/C	Not calculated.
No CHG	No change.
Performance this year	The value achieved by the district on each measure.
Target next year	For each measure, displays the AMO or annual target the district is expected to achieve over the next year.
YES*	For Indicator 3, a value of "Yes*" indicates that the district was credited with meeting the target through an adjustment for students with disabilities. If a school or LEA does not make AYP in 2006 solely due to its students with disabilities subgroup not making AMOs, 20 percentage points were added to the school’s or LEA’s percent proficient for this subgroup.
UNK	Unknown

Performance Indicators

The numbered indicators correspond to the measurement indicators in the SPP and APR Report required to be made available to the public at the LEA level; indicators 15 through 20 are not reported for individual LEAs. Indicators without numbers are measurements used by CDE to provide additional information about the required indicators.

Indicator Number	Measurement Calculation
1	Graduation – This measure calculates the percentage of all exiting students in grade twelve, and exiting ungraded students eighteen and over, who graduate from high school with a regular diploma. Students who do not graduate but continue in general education, who have died, or dropped out of school are not included in the calculation.
2	Dropout – This measure calculates the percentage of all students in grades seven and higher, and ungraded students thirteen and over, who exit special education by dropping out of school. Because of differences in the calculation methodologies, this measure cannot be compared with dropout rates for students in general education.
3	Assessment - Assessment refers to academic achievement testing to meet the requirements of NCLB. Met AYP– A district meets all AYP participation and performance requirements Participation – NCLB requires at least 95% of students to be tested on all content areas ELA – The English Language Arts content area of the CST or CAPA Math – The Mathematics content area of the CST or CAPA Performance – NCLB requires that the percent of students who achieve proficient or advanced on all CST or CAPA content areas meets or exceeds the AYP target value (AMO)
4	Suspension/Expulsion – This measure calculates the percentage of all students ages three through twenty-two receiving special education that are suspended or expelled for more than ten days in the school year Overall – This measure calculates the percent of all students in the LEA receiving special education who were suspended or expelled for more than ten days. Race/ethnic disproportion – This measure indicates whether or not there is race/ethnic disproportionality among students ages three - twenty-two suspended for more than ten days overall due to policies, procedures, or practices.
5	LRE – This measure calculates the average amount of time students ages six - twenty-two receive their special education or services in settings apart from their non-disabled peers. Out regular class < 21% – students served away from their non-disabled peers 20% or less of the normal school day. Out regular class > 60% – students served away from their non-disabled peers 60% or more of the normal school day. Separate facility – students served away from their non-disabled peers 100% of the time in a facility that educates only students with disabilities.
6	LRE– This measure calculates the percent of preschool students ages three – five in each SELPA who receive their special education or services in various settings. Attending a regular early childhood program. Not attending a regular early childhood program or kindergarten and attending a special education program. Not attending a regular early childhood program or kindergarten and not attending a special education program.
7	Assessment – These measures display the progress of preschool students ages three – five in each SELPA in three areas. Within each of the three areas are five levels displaying the percent of children ages three – five achieving each improvement level. Achievement is measured twice each year, in fall and again the following spring. The three areas are Positive social-emotional skills. Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills. Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs. The five improvement levels are no improvement improved: not near peers improved: near peers improved: equal to peers maintained with peers
8	Parent Involvement – This measure calculates the percent of parents of children ages birth through twenty-two receiving special education reporting that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means improving services and results for children with disabilities.
9	Disproportional representation overall – This measure indicates whether there is race/ethnic disproportionality among students ages six – twenty-two which may be due to policies, procedures, or practices.
10	Disproportional representation by disability – This measure indicates whether or not there is race/ethnic disproportionality by disability among students ages six twenty-two which may be due to policies, procedures, or practices.
11	Eligibility evaluation – This measure calculates the percent of children ages birth – twenty-two whose eligibility for special education was determined within 60 days of receipt of parental consent for evaluation.
12	Transition part C to part B – This measure calculates the percent of students ages birth – two in each SELPA receiving special education under IDEA Part C who were referred for assessment for special education under IDEA Part B, found eligible under Part B, and had an IEP developed before their third birthdays
13	Secondary transition – This measure calculates the percent of children ages sixteen and above whose IEPs include coordinated, measurable, annual IEP goals and transition services that will reasonably enable the student to meet the post secondary goals.
14	Postschool outcomes – This measure calculates the percent of high-school age children who are competitively employed, enrolled in a post secondary school or both within one year of leaving high school.

2005-06 California District-level Additional Measures

Indicator	Measurement Indicator
Least Restrictive Environment	This measure calculates the percent of students ages six - twenty-two who receive their special education or services in settings apart from their non-disabled peers more than 80% of the normal school day, but not in a separate facility.
Disproportional Representation	These measures indicate whether an LEA has disproportional race/ethnic representation in three categories. An LEA with disproportionality under any of these measures must perform a review of the related policies, procedures and practices; and report any noncompliance's and their corrections to the state. By discipline - This measure calculates the percent of students in each race/ethnic category suspended or expelled for more than ten days are of total such suspensions. The percent for each race/ethnic category is compared with the percent that race/ethnic category is of all students receiving special education in the LEA. If, for one or more of the race/ethnic categories, the suspension and expulsion percent exceeds the percent in special education by more than 20 percent, the district is disproportionate. Overall - This measure is calculated in two steps. First, a Disparity index is calculated for an LEA. If the Disparity value is less than or equal to the established benchmark for that year, the district is not considered disproportionate on this measure. If, however, the Disparity value is greater than the established benchmark for that year, two additional calculations are performed. The percent students in a particular race/ethnic category are of all students receiving special education in the LEA is compared with the percent that race/ethnic category is of all students in grades one - twelve in the LEA. These calculations are repeated for each of the listed race/ethnic categories. To test for proportional over-representation, the proportion of each race/ethnic enrollment receiving special education in a district is compared to the proportion of that group in the total grade one - twelve population of the district. When the proportion of students ages six - twenty-two receiving special education for any race/ethnic category is more than 20 percent higher than its proportion in the grades one - twelve populations AND the district has higher disparity using the disparity test, the district is identified as proportionately overrepresented. To test for proportional under-representation, the proportion of each race/ethnic enrollment receiving special education in a district is compared to the proportion of that group in the total grade one - twelve population of the district. When the proportion of students ages six - twenty-two receiving special education for any race/ethnic category is more than 40 percent lower than its proportion in the grades one - twelve populations AND the district has higher disparity using the disparity test, the district is identified as proportionately underrepresented By disability - To test for proportional over-representation, the proportion of each race/ethnic group enrollment within a disability category in a district is compared to the proportion of that group in the total grade one - twelve population of the district. When the proportion of students ages six - twenty-two for any race/ethnic group within a particular disability category is more than 20 percent higher than its proportion in the grades one - twelve populations, that race/ethnic-disability cell is identified as proportionately overrepresented. To test for proportional under-representation, the proportion of each race/ethnic group enrollment within a disability category in a district is compared to the proportion of that group in the total grade one - twelve population of the district. When the proportion of students ages six - twenty-two for any race/ethnic group within a particular disability category is more than 40 percent lower than its proportion in the grades one - twelve populations, that race/ethnic-disability cell is identified as proportionately underrepresented. If more than ten of the 30 race/ethnic-disability category cells are overrepresented, or if more than ten are underrepresented, the district is considered disproportionate.
Race/Ethnic Disparity	For each race/ethnic category, the number of students receiving special education is divided by the number of students in that race/ethnic category in general education yielding the likelihood (or risk) that a student from that category will be found eligible for special education. This calculation is repeated for each of the race/ethnic categories. The smallest risk percentage is subtracted from the largest, producing an index of the size of the disparity in identification among race/ethnic categories. The annual benchmark for this index decreases each year. Districts that exceed the annual benchmark are then measured for overall disproportionality.
Returned to GE	This measure displays the percent of students who received special education during the year, were reassessed and found no longer eligible for special education, and are known to be continuing with the general education curriculum.

District/SELPA Special Education Annual Performance Report Measures for 2005-06

The Annual Performance Report Measures are in alphabetical order by district/SELPA name.

To access a report for a district, click on the table cell containing the first letter of the name of that district in the “2006-07 First Letter of District/SELPA Name” box below. When the reports are displayed, use the "Find" function to search for the name of the district. When the program finds the report, you may view it on screen and print it. Before printing, note the number of the page you are viewing and use the page-of-page selection in the print dialogue box to limit your printout to the desired district report.
To access a report for a SELPA, click on the “SELPA” table cell in the “2006-07 First Letter of District/SELPA Name” box below. When the reports are displayed, use the "Find" function to search for the name of the SELPA. When the program finds the report, you may view it on screen and print it. Before printing, note the number of the page you are viewing and use the page-of-page selection in the print dialogue box to limit your printout to the desired SELPA report.
If you are unable to view and/or print a district/SELPA report, a hardcopy can be provided via FAX or postal mail. Submit your request, including the district/SELPA name and your FAX number or mailing address to casemis@cde.ca.gov.

Reports by District Name/SELPA Name

District Names Beginning with A-B (PDF; 3.1MB; 228pp.)
District Names Beginning with C (PDF; 7.1MB; 174pp.)
District Names Beginning with D-F (PDF; 8.2MB; 200pp.)
District Names Beginning with G-J (PDF; 3.5MB; 190pp.)
District Names Beginning with K-L (PDF; 8.3MB; 202pp.)
District Names Beginning with M (PDF; 6.7MB; 164pp.)
District Names Beginning with N-O (PDF; 4.5MB; 110pp.)
District Names Beginning with P-R (PDF; 9.5MB; 228pp.)
District Names Beginning with S (PDF; 10.1MB; 244pp.)
District Names Beginning with T-Z (PDF; 2.9MB; 216pp.)
SELPA (PDF; 865KB; 119pp.)