CALPADS Update Flash #205

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:       April 20, 2021

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #205

End-of-Year Reminders

EOY Deadlines

LEAs are reminded of the following End-of-Year (EOY) key dates:

• EOY snapshot reports begin: May 10, 2021
• Initial approval deadline for LEAs ONLY: July 30, 2021
• Final approval deadline for LEAs/ Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs): August 27, 2021

LEAs are required to approve their EOY submissions by July 30, 2021. SELPAs are not required to approve LEA submissions by this deadline. LEAs and SELPAs must both approve all EOY submissions by the close of the amendment window, on August 27, 2021, in order for the submissions to be certified. The CDE will send a letter to the superintendents and charter school administrators of any districts or charter schools that do not approve one or more of their EOY submissions by the July 30, 2021 deadline. The letter will emphasize the importance of LEAs and SELPAs approving all submissions by the final August 27, 2021 deadline, as the data will be publicly reported.

Roll-Out of Work-Based Learning Submission Functionality

Beginning in 2020−21, as part of EOY 1, LEAs will be required to submit the completion of work-based learning activities by high school students through the new Work-Based Learning (WBLR) file. The functionality related to this submission will be available as follows:

LEAs should refer to Flash 184 for more information on the Work-Based Learning submission.

Graduation Rates and Graduate and Completer Counts

Graduation Rates: The Graduation Rate Indicator on the California School Dashboard (Dashboard) is based on the 4-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR), the five-year cohort graduation rate, and the one-year graduation rate for Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) schools. Data are pulled from the CALPADS Operational Data Store (ODS) on a specified day and used to calculate the Graduation Rate Indicator.

The CALPADS Cohort Report only reflects the 4-Year ACGR and is currently available in CALPADS. This report now includes three future cohort years, which will enable LEAs to monitor and track first-time ninth graders, as well as future cohorts whose students are currently in the 10th and 11th grades. In addition, the report now includes a Career Technical Education (CTE) Completer filter intended to help LEAs track CTE completers which factor into the determination of whether a student is prepared for college/career on the Dashboard. We hope these report enhancements facilitate the ability of LEAs to track student progress with the goal of ensuring that all students are prepared for college/career when they graduate.

LEAs are reminded that data are pulled from the CALPADS Operational Data Store (ODS) on August 27, 2021 (the same date as the close of the Amendment Window for the EOY submissions) and used to calculate the ACGR, and the other rates used to calculate the Graduation Rate Indicator on the Dashboard. These data are not certified because they encompass multiple years of data that sometime change as other LEAs enroll/exit students.

LEAs are also reminded that they should not simply exit students at the end of the year with an E155 (Year-End Exit) just to certify the EOY 3 submission by the July 30 deadline. Instead, LEAs should exit students with a Student Exit Category code in CALPADS that reflects the actual reason a student is being exited based on the most current information the LEA has at the time regarding each student. The E155 student exit signifies that the student is expected to return to the same school in the following academic year. Consequently, for students in year four of the cohort the E155 exit is counted as a dropout, which is clearly displayed on the CALPADS 15.1 – Counts and Rates cohort report. To avoid cohort graduation rate issues, LEAs should make sure all cohort students are correctly exited and LEAs should carefully review this information in their CALPADS 15.1 and 15.2 cohort reports. When the CDE publicly reports the data, the CDE cannot accommodate the correction of data that LEAs fail to submit correctly or properly review within the established data submission and review timeframes.

One-Year Graduate and Completer Counts: Beginning in 2019−20, LEAs certified as part of EOY 3, annual graduate and completer counts (regardless of cohort year), which are used for federal reporting. This 2020−21 EOY, LEAs will be able to see these counts in a new certification report, 1.22 – Graduates and Completers – Count, and supporting report, 1.23 – Graduates and Completers – Student List. Note that one-year dropout counts will continue to be certified as part of the annual CALPADS Fall 1 submission in order to give potential dropouts time to reenroll in the subsequent fall.

Extended Assessment Window and Impact on EOY

The testing window for the summative California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and the summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) has been extended to July 30, 2021. To accommodate this extended July testing window, the June 30, 2021 CALPADS feed of student enrollments/exits to the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) will be the final feed for the 2020−21 school year. This means that students with enrollment start dates that are on or prior to June 30 and whose exit dates are null will be included in TOMS and able to test during July. Therefore, LEAs that choose to test in July should wait to submit student exits to CALPADS until on or after July 1 and then submit exits to CALPADS with exit dates that were in June, or on the last day of school.

LEAs are reminded that they can submit data required for any of the EOY submissions at any time. Beginning May 10, LEAs will be able to see those data in the certification reports, and can begin reviewing and working on clearing any certification errors. LEAs that choose to assess students in July, and therefore should not exit students until after June 30, will receive certification error, CERT131 – Student Enrollment Record in Active AY Not Exited, for any students they have not exited. This error, however, can be ignored, and LEAs can continue to upload data, exit students who are not testing in July, and address other certification errors. Beginning July 1, LEAs can begin to exit all their students, and will have until July 30 to upload exits for any remaining students who have not been exited. LEAs can also decertify and further amend data during the Amendment Window which closes on August 27, 2021.

NOTE: Students should only be tested at the site where they were enrolled during the school year so that their results are attributed to the appropriate school for reporting purposes; while LEAs do not normally submit summer school enrollments to CALPADS, LEAs may submit June summer school enrollments to assess students in July, only if the summer school site is the same site where the students were last enrolled in the 2020−21 academic year.

Review Homeless Counts Beginning in May

Especially during these challenging times of the pandemic, it is critical that both school districts and county offices of education (COEs) ensure that their homeless liaisons have access to the detailed, student-level report, Report 5.5 - Homeless Students Enrolled - Student List, in CALPADS. If homeless liaisons have access to this report in CALPADS, they can ensure that the homeless students they are serving are identified correctly in the local student information system and in CALPADS.

In order for both the county and district homeless liaison to view Report 5.5 - Homeless Students Enrolled - Student List, each must be assigned the EOY 3 Report role. In order for county homeless liaisons to view Report 5.5, the LEA CALPADS Administrator must add the county homeless liaison to their organization and assign the EOY 3 Report role. This will allow the county homeless liaison to view Report 5.5. If you do not know who your district or county homeless liaison is, a list of homeless liaisons can be accessed on the CDE Homeless Education web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/hs/.

In addition, COE homeless liaisons are reminded that they may begin viewing homeless counts for each district within the county beginning May 10, as C/A Report 5.4 - Homeless Students Enrolled is now available during the entire submission window, displaying homeless counts for each district within the county even before the LEA has approved its EOY 3 submission. This will allow COE homeless liaisons to monitor homeless counts for each LEA within the county throughout the submission window. In order to review C/A Report 5.4, a CALPADS user must have the County role added to their CALPADS account.

This year it is especially important to ensure students are identified as homeless in the student information systems and CALPADS because under the Pandemic-Electronic Transfer Benefits (P-EBT) program, students identified as homeless in CALPADS will receive P-EBT cards that can be used to purchase food and groceries. For homeless students who do not have a mailing address, LEAs have been instructed to upload the school site or district office address for the student’s address, so that the LEA can receive and distribute the cards to students. (Refer to Flash 200 for more information on P-EBT.)