February 16, 2010
Dear Language Census Coordinators for Independently Reporting Charter Schools:
The collection of 2009-10 Language Census data from every local educational agency (LEA) in California was scheduled to be transitioned to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) in March of 2010. Due to delays in the implementation of CALPADS, the collection of Language Census data through CALPADS has been postponed until March of 2011.
In order to obtain necessary 2009-10 Language Census data for this year only, a data collection outside of CALPADS will take place this spring. The spring collection will utilize the Language Census to collect information including school-level counts of English learners, as well as counts of staff providing services to English learners. The detailed counts of English learners by grade and language will not be included in the collection for this year.
The modified Language Census data are to be collected as of March 1, 2010, and submitted by independently reporting charter schools to the California Department of Education (CDE) on or before March 26, 2010. This mailing includes the information and materials your independently reporting charter school will need to complete the March 2010 modified Language Census data collection.
Since your charter school reported fall California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) and CALPADS data independently of your LEA, you will be responsible for reporting the Language Census data independently of your LEA as well. Data for your charter school must be submitted directly to the CDE using the Language Census Data Entry Assistant (LCDEA) software.
It is the Language Census coordinator’s responsibility to ensure that Language Census data are key entered or imported into the LCDEA software; send summary reports to the appropriate staff for review; correct all data errors; resolve warnings, if needed; and electronically submit the data to the CDE over the Internet.
In correspondence sent a few weeks ago, we requested that each independently reporting charter school designate a Language Census coordinator. If you did not receive the correspondence, or have not yet designated a coordinator, we have inserted your CBEDS coordinator as the Language Census coordinator. To assign a different coordinator, logon to the Language Census Coordinator Login Web page at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/lclogin.asp and enter your password, which is listed on the enclosed List of Expected Schools. It is important to keep your Language Census coordinator information current as it will be used to distribute CDE announcements related to the Language Census data collection.
The Language Census is only collecting data on English learner settings and services, counts of reclassified students, and staff providing services to English learners. If your charter school does not have any of this data to report, you may either use the LCDEA software, or you may logon to the Language Census Coordinator Login Web page at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/lclogin.asp between March 1, 2010, and March 26, 2010, to certify that your charter school has no Language Census counts to report. You will need your unique password, which is provided on the enclosed List of Expected Schools, to access this site.
The Language Census data will be collected through a stand alone PC-based data entry assistant software that Language Census coordinators will download and install on a PC (see Download LCDEA Software below).
Materials will not be mailed to coordinators. To obtain materials for reporting Language Census data, or for more information on how Language Census data are being reported this year, please refer to the following Web pages.
If you have any questions regarding information contained in this letter, please contact the Educational Demographics Office, at 916-327-0219, or by e-mail at eddemo@cde.ca.gov.
Sincerely,
Keric Ashley, Director
Data Management Division
KA:ks
Enclosure