Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 2010–11 California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System Fall 1 Annual Enrollment Submission

This letter is to notify you that the certification deadline for the 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 Annual Enrollment was recently changed from January 7 to February 4, 2011. We ask that you support and encourage your staff to update and certify your local educational agency (LEA) or charter school data within the California Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) by the February 4 deadline.

CALPADS ENHANCEMENTS

The 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 certification deadline was moved primarily to implement an important enhancement to CALPADS. This enhancement will allow LEAs to see all statewide adjustments to 2009–10 graduate and dropout counts prior to certification, including “no show” dropouts. Last year, the CDE made the adjustments to the 2008–09 graduate and dropout counts after LEAs certified their data. This important enhancement is scheduled to be implemented in CALPADS in late January. Once implemented, the graduate and dropout counts certified by the LEA should be the same as those counts publically displayed by the CDE on DataQuest and used by CDE to calculate graduation and dropout rates.

IMPORTANT DATES

In addition to the February 4 certification deadline, there are several other important dates you should be aware of that are associated with the 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 Annual Enrollment Update. Fall 1 data that are certified by February 4 will be pulled from CALPADS and used for preliminary 2010–11 enrollment counts, and 2009–10 graduate and dropout counts. LEAs that certify their Fall 1 data by February 4 will be provided a private preview of these preliminary enrollment, graduate and dropout counts on March 11, 2011. The enhancement mentioned above will help ensure the counts displayed on the preview site are the same as those counts certified by the LEA.

The CDE will also use the February 4 certified data to calculate preliminary graduate and dropout rates. These rates, which are discussed in greater detail below, will be made available for LEAs in a private preview on March 25, 2011. Please Note: In order to receive a private preview of the preliminary enrollment, graduate and dropout counts on March 11 and a private preview of the preliminary graduate and dropout rates on March 25, LEAs must certify their CALPADS Fall 1 data by the February 4 deadline. LEAs that do not certify their Fall 1 data by February 4, 2011 will not be able to preview their preliminary 2009–10 graduation and dropout counts or rates.

The Fall 1 Amendment window will open February 14 (after CDE pulls the data from CALPADS); LEAs will still have an opportunity to amend their CALPADS data following the preview of their preliminary graduate and dropout counts and rates. Specifically, LEAs will be able to continue to update CALPADS, submit corrections, and re-certify their data up through April 22, 2010, which is the last day to submit and certify data for the 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 Annual Enrollment update. On April 23, 2011, the CDE will pull data from CALPADS to generate the final 2010–11 enrollment counts, as well as the final 2009–10 graduate and dropout counts and rates. LEAs will receive a private preview of these final counts and rates on May 19, 2011. These data will then be publically released to DataQuest on May 23, 2011.

Those districts and independently reporting charter (IRC) schools that fail to certify their 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 data by April 22 will have no official enrollment counts for 2010–11 and no official graduate or dropout data for 2009–10. Official enrollment data are used for many purposes, including funding calculations for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Economic Impact Aid (EIA) “Concentration Factor,” and Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) funding. Without official enrollment, LEAs may miss out on receiving funding from these and other programs. The data collected in the CALPADS Fall 1 data submission are also used to generate official graduate and dropout counts and rates. Without official graduation rates, LEAs cannot meet their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets. Official enrollment, graduate, and dropout data will be posted on DataQuest and viewable by the public.

GRADUATION RATE CALCULATIONS FOR 2009–10

This year the CDE will calculate two graduation rates.

• Aggregate Graduation Rate used for NCLB Reporting. The CDE will calculate a 2009–10 aggregate graduation rate for each LEA using the same methodology as in previous years. This rate will be used for accountability purposes for this year and will be compared to the 2008–09 aggregate graduation rate to determine if LEAs have met their graduation rate target. After this year, the aggregate graduation rate will no longer be calculated or used for accountability purposes.
• Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate. As required by the federal regulations, the CDE will also calculate a four-year cohort graduation rate for each LEA using certified student-level exit data for each of the past four years. Then, beginning next year, the 2009–10 four-year cohort graduation rate will serve as the new baseline for comparison with the 2010–11 four-year cohort graduation rate to determine if LEAs have met their graduation rate target. Going forward, four-year cohort graduation rates will be calculated and used for accountability purposes.

The four-year graduation rate will represent a new baseline, and will not be comparable to past graduation rates. The CDE understands that moving to a new graduation rate may raise concerns for LEAs. The CDE will provide more information on the process it will use for calculating the four-year graduation rate and will keep LEAs informed of any issues that arise. These rates will be made available on March 25, 2011 in a private preview for those LEAs that certified by the February 4 deadline. Additionally, as mentioned above, LEAs will have until April 22, 2011 to amend their 2009–10 exit data as needed to update their graduate and dropout data.

NEXT STEPS

In order to complete and certify the 2010–11 CALPADS Fall 1 Annual Enrollment for your LEA, the following steps must be performed:

Steps to be completed by your LEA CALPADS Administrator:

1. Set up local accounts and roles (if not done already)
2. Request statewide student identifiers (SSIDs) for students enrolled on or before Information Day (October 6, 2010)
3. Download SSIDs from CALPADS and import them into your local student information system (SIS)
4. Update student enrollment records to exit students that have left your district
5. Update student demographic records with grade level changes for new and continuing students within your district
6. Update student program records for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) eligibility for new and continuing students within your district
7. Review the certification reports within CALPADS
8. Certify the Fall 1 data submission within CALPADS (both Level 1 and Level 2)

Steps to be completed by the superintendent, charter school administrator, or designee:

1. After your CALPADS Administrator has completed the Level 1 certification, you, the superintendent or charter school administrator, or your designee must attest to the accuracy of the data by completing the Level 2 certification.

To be on track to comfortably finish these updates and certify by the February 4 deadline, your LEA or charter school should be at or beyond step 6 above.

You may check the status of your LEA on the CDE CALPADS County-Level Certification Report Web page at http://www2.cde.ca.gov/calpadsstatus/index.aspx. Select your county from the menu and press 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 status. 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 percent, 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 each Monday.

My staff and the CALPADS Service Desk staff are eager to work with your staff to get this work completed on time. If you have any questions, please contact the CALPADS Service Desk by phone at 916-325-9210 or by e-mail at calpads-support@cde.ca.gov.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Keric Ashley, Director
Data Management Division

KA:rb