CALPADS Update FLASH #179

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       May 18, 2020

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #179

UPDATE to this Flash, January 2022:
Please note that the Student Test Settings (STSE) file has not yet been implemented, and it is on hold indefinitely.

2020–2021 Process for Submitting English Learner and Initial Fluent English Proficient Statuses to CALPADS

Beginning July 1, 2020, local educational agencies (LEAs) will no longer be able to submit the English Language Acquisition Statuses (ELAS) of English Learner (EL) and Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) to CALPADS (unless the student’s status is subsequently corrected to either EL or IFEP through a formal correction process). The student’s initial ELAS will be updated directly in CALPADS from the test vendor when students complete the online version of the Initial English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC), which is scheduled to open on August 20, 2020.

Transition Process Between July 1, 2020 and August, 20, 2020

From July 1, 2020 until the Initial ELPAC goes online August 20, 2020, LEAs will be able to assess students using the paper-pencil version of the Initial ELPAC. LEAs must then hold on to the scores and load them into the Data Entry Interface (DEI) when the online version of the Initial ELPAC becomes available. Once results are loaded, the resulting EL or IFEP statuses will be updated directly in CALPADS. The Local Scoring Tool (LST) will not be available after June 26, 2020.

In order to load scores into the DEI, students must have in CALPADS:

• A Student Enrollment (SENR) record with the student's actual start date (expected first day of school).
• A Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) record with:
• ELAS of "TBD"
• ELAS Start Date of the current date
• Primary language other than English or American Sign Language
• A Student Information (SINF) record with the student's address, if the LEA wants the student address to be printed on the Student Score Report (SSR).

Ongoing Process for the Online Initial ELPAC

Beginning on August 20, 2020, students must have a CALPADS enrollment in order to take the Initial ELPAC. This means that in subsequent years, LEAs who choose to test students during the summer will be required to pre-enroll students in CALPADS.

Once students have completed the Initial ELPAC, their determined ELAS status of EL or IFEP will be sent from the test vendor on a nightly basis to CALPADS, and will display back in Test Operations Management System (TOMS) within 48 hours. Students with an ELAS of EL will then be able to access the Summative ELPAC when it is time to take that test. LEAs will no longer be able to submit an ELAS of EL or IFEP, except in conjunction with an appropriate Correction Reason Code through the online maintenance functionality in CALPADS.

The EL or IFEP status that results from the student taking the Initial ELPAC will display for individual students in the student English Learner container in CALPADS. LEAs will also be able to view student EL or IFEP statuses in TOMS. To facilitate updating local systems with the new statuses, LEAs will be able to utilize the CALPADS Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) ODS Extract.

2020–2021 and 2021–2022 Process for Submitting Student Test Settings

LEA submission and maintenance of student test settings (designated supports and accommodations) in CALPADS has been postponed until 2021–2022.

LEAs currently load student test settings for individual students directly into TOMS for assessments that are part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System, and the ELPAC. LEAs will continue to load test settings directly to TOMS for all assessments in the 2020–2021 school year.

Beginning in the 2021–2022 test administration year, LEAs will be required to submit test settings for all CAASPP and ELPAC assessments to CALPADS either in batch through the Student Test Settings (STSE) file** [See update regarding STSE in this Flash] or through CALPADS online maintenance. The student test settings will be exported nightly from the CALPADS Operational Data Store (ODS) to the assessment vendor on a nightly basis and will be available to students in the Test Delivery System (TDS) approximately 48 hours later. 

The STSE file** [See update regarding STSE in this Flash] that LEAs will use to submit student test settings to CALPADS in
2021–2022 has already been made available to the student information system (SIS) vendors, and will be included in the CALPADS File Specifications with a note that this will become effective in 2021–2022.

Background

Test settings include the following accessibility resources: 

• Designated supports are available to all students when determined for use by an educator or team of educators (with parent/guardian and student input, as appropriate) or specified in the student’s individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 accommodation plan.
• Accommodations must be permitted on tests to all eligible students if specified in the student’s IEP or Section 504 accommodation plan.

Designated supports and accommodations are either:

• Embedded, which means they are digitally delivered as part of the technology platform for the computer-administered tests.
• Non-embedded, which means they are provided by the LEA, outside of the TDS, for either computer-administered or paper-pencil tests.

LEAs are required to specify, for each student, all embedded and non-embedded designated supports and accommodations. The use of embedded and non-embedded resources does not change or alter the construct being measured and result in valid test scores.

The STSE file** [See update regarding STSE in this Flash] can be generated from either the student information system (SIS) or special education data system (SEDS). Currently, LEAs generally maintain test settings for:

• Students with an active IEP in their SEDS.
• Students on 504 accommodation plans in their SIS, and sometimes in their SEDS.
• General education students, including English Learners (ELs), in their SIS or in a separate system.

New Process

In the new process, LEAs will submit student test settings to CALPADS through the STSE file** [See update regarding STSE in this Flash] or through online maintenance. CALPADS will accept the STSE file** [See update regarding STSE in this Flash] from SEDS’ and SIS’. It is important for LEAs to remember that the STSE will be a full replacement file. Therefore, if an LEA makes any updates online, the updates will be overwritten unless the LEA makes the same updates in their source system.

Under the new process, it will be important for LEAs to identify and submit test settings to CALPADS well before the student is scheduled to test. It will take at least 48 hours for test settings submitted to CALPADS to be available in the TDS for students who are testing, and there will be no opportunity to update test settings directly in TOMS. For the Initial ELPAC only, the CDE is exploring the possibility of enabling test administrators to input test settings in the Test Administrator Interface for an individual student that would remain only for that session.

It should be noted that these data are not part of a CALPADS submission in which data are certified by the LEA. Rather, these data will be maintained in the CALPADS ODS and LEAs will be able to upload and update these data on an ongoing basis throughout the year. The test settings in the CALPADS ODS will be exported to TOMS on a nightly basis. LEAs will also be able to download, from CALPADS, a student-level extract that includes the test settings in the CALPADS ODS.

Maintenance of Test Settings

The tests and the types of test settings LEAs must maintain for specific student groups are summarized in the table below.

*For those students with active IEPs that specify the student is to take an alternative assessment.

LEAs must submit test settings for students with active IEPs (and students on 504 Accommodation Plans if these data are maintained in the SEDS) from their SEDS directly to CALPADS in the same method that they currently submit all other data for students with active IEPs, in batch using the application program interface (API). If needed, LEAs will be able to submit these data for individual students using the online maintenance functionality in CALPADS.

For students with active IEPs who also have a 504 Accommodation Plan, LEAs should establish a coordinated process to ensure any designated supports and accommodations on a student's IEP do not conflict with any designated supports and accommodations on the 504 Accommodation Plan. This will be particularly important if the test settings are maintained in two different systems. Should any of these designated supports or accommodations conflict, the test settings identified in the IEP would override those submitted in the 504 Accommodation Plan.

LEAs must submit test settings for general education students (including ELs who are not students with disabilities) and students with active 504 Accommodations Plans from their SIS directly to CALPADS, in batch or online.

Under the new process it will be important for LEAs to ensure that test settings are in CALPADS well before the student is scheduled to take the test.

Preparing for the New Process

To prepare for the new process, LEAs should:

• Identify where test settings for different student groups (especially for ELs) are currently maintained and identify who is responsible for maintaining those test settings and in what system.
• Develop local business processes for identifying, inputting and maintaining test settings for all students in their SEDS and SIS.
• Develop a timeline to ensure all test settings for students are in place and input into local systems at least two weeks prior to testing.

The CDE strongly encourages LEAs to put these processes in place in 2020–2021, as doing so will well position LEAs to submit student test settings at the beginning of the 2021–22 test administration year, and to maintain those data on an ongoing basis.

The CDE and the test vendor will conduct a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of the new process in the April 2021 to June 2021 timeframe, and will solicit LEAs and their SIS and SEDS vendors who are interested in participating in the UAT in early 2021.

** UPDATE to this Flash, January 2022: Please note that the Student Test Settings (STSE) file has not yet been implemented, and it is on hold indefinitely.