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A lot of energy, time, and money is being spent on state assessments, so it is proper to check in and ask how it is going. It would not make sense for us to continue to spend the effort on testing only to ignore the results. And yet, eight years into the California CAASPP system, little is known about individual-level student scores responses to the Summative tests, especially with the multiple-choice section of the test. The overall scale score each student receives does not actually break down the types of questions each student answered correctly. Over the last eight years this fact has remained – individual student level data on the Computer Adapted test is still unknown. In the las...
The School Data Leadership Association is co-presenting a webinar on September 15, 2022 at 10 AM PST. TOPIC: Modernizing Your Approach to EdTech: From Management to Optimization DESCRIPTION: Schools, districts and charter networks of every size are managing increasing numbers of edtech products - often with few dedicated resources and limited bandwidth. In this webinar, we'll sit down with Christopher Moggia, EdD, to discuss best practices every district can follow to drive more value from their edtech investments. We'll cover six steps to update your approach to edtech management:1. Document which edtech tools your students and teachers are using.2. Understand dist...
K12 district information teams navigate a confusing array of data management strategies to connect, and pass data between, an ever-growing collection of applications.This webinar, led by the School Data Leadership Association, will answer the question that persists for all K12 educators and technologists: How do move towards truly connecting all of our data systems?Topics will include:What are districts' best data integration options?What is the future of data warehousing and data exchanges?What questions should data leaders ask if a district wants to achieve better cross-district data access?Presenters:Chris Moggia, Executive Director, School Data Leadership AssociationKathryn Grady, Senior...
Here's a video from the CALPADS team regarding the changes. https://youtu.be/7hjse9TiDeQ
Hello SDLA members!We've just put the finishing touches on the 7th annual district systems survey.You can find it here: 7th Annual District Systems Survey The URL is https://www.schooldataleadership.org/ca-k-12-school-districts/2022-district-systems-surveyPlease help us compile the best single resource for systems used by California school districts by taking 5-10 minutes to complete the survey. Hint - you can print the list out and use that to review your district's systems, checking them off as you go. The list can also be used to help your district understand what OPTIONS exist within each category.Each year we review the results and update the product pages listed on our site. Our goal i...
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued two resource collections—one for elementary and secondary schools and one for postsecondary institutions—designed to assist in planning for a successful and equitable return to schools and campuses. The two collections include fact sheets, Q&As, letters to educators, and other materials explaining the obligations that elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools have under the federal civil rights laws enforced by OCR to provide educational environments free from discrimination. Read the Elementary and Secondary Resource Collection PDF (508K)Read the Postsecondary Resource Collection PDF (356K) As we look forward...
Kahoot! today announced the acquisition of Clever, one of the most widely-used digital learning platforms by U.S. K-12 schools, to make learning awesome worldwide. Oslo, Norway (May 6, 2021) – Kahoot!, a global learning platform company, announced today the acquisition of Clever Inc., a privately-held, California-based company that is one of the most widely-used digital learning platforms by U.S. K-12 schools. The partnership between two of the most popular platforms in education, with distinct and highly complementary offerings, will provide improved learning solutions and offerings to U.S. schools, while accelerating the global expansion of Clever's solutions. Kahoot! Group will acquire 10...
The United States Department of Education on Tuesday April 6, 2021 approved in writing a request from the California Department of Education to waive some accountablity, school identificiation, and related reporting requirements for the 2020-21 school year due to challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please note that these accountabilty requirement waivers did NOT extend reporting or testing deadlines nor did they waive the administration of any CAASPP, CAST, CAA, ELPAC, or related state tests. In addition no extension to testing deadlines were issued. You can read the full report below:
Jenny Rankin, whose research revealed that teachers drew the wrong conclusion from test data most of the time when using conventional reports.
In ten years, will historians look back at the 30-year effort to get teachers to interpret test data as a failure? I'm impatient. I don't want to wait ten years. Although I'm no historian, here's my verdict. Yes, it was a failure. This long push to make teachers do "data-driven decision-making" has flopped. But of all those who share responsibility for this flop, teachers are the least culpable. Evidence of its failure is everywhere. The tests most teachers favor are the ones they create. Those teacher-created tests often reveal the least about the degree to which students have mastered the subject matter they've studied. State tests are disliked, disrespected and misunderstood. Proof of how...
The California Department of Education has partnered with the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) to hold the annual California Assessment Conference on October 6 and 7, 2020, through a virtual conference platform. Details about this professional learning opportunity and registration are available on the conference website at https://www.cdecac.org.
Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments. New Resource! Guidance on Diagnostic and Formative Assessments Today, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced the availability of a new resource, "Guidance on Diagnostic and Formative Assessments." This informative document describes how educators can use California's approved assessments to evaluate where students are academically at the start of and throughout the school year. CALPADS and the ELPAC: Changes Beginning July 1, 2020, the California Longi...
Editor's note: Still not sure if they understand schools or not. Keeping students 6 feet apart from each other is clearly not a viable option in schools where 40 students are crammed into a single classroom. Unclear what resources, if any, will actually flow to schools to enable these recommendations to lead to actual implementation. But here they are . . . . California Releases Guidance on Re-Opening of Schools Stronger Together - Published June 8, 2020. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/documents/strongertogether.pdf
Assessment Spotlight Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments. Newly Updated Smarter Content Explorer! The Smarter Content Explorer has recently been updated! Offering new features based on educator feedback, this user-friendly web tool combines the information provided in the Smarter Balanced Content and Item Specifications—key resources used in test and item development—into an easy-to-use search interface. Users can access customized content generated by a quick search by subject, grade, and targ...
It's interesting how so many news reporters, bloggers, and just average citizens can interpret the same data so wildly differently. This short and extremely informative video explains why this is true when looking at the COVID-19 Country Data. Interesting to project this same thinking onto K-12 school data. Even when we collect it accurately, are we also interpreting it accurately?
Understanding Participation and Scoring Rules for the Online 2019–2020 Summative ELPAC Dear LEA ELPAC Coordinator: Local educational agencies (LEAs) may be wondering how the transition to the computer-based ELPAC affects how English learners (ELs) count as participated and which students will be scored. English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) has a whole new importance with a computer-based assessment. ELs will be eligible to test only if their ELAS is "EL." Please work with the LEA's California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System coordinator to ensure all ELAS data is up to date before students begin testing. To count as participated, students must log on to at least one domain in...
This page provides information about the California Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System that will connect P-20 data from child care, early education, K-12 education, financial aid, higher education, workforce, and health and human services. The 2019-2020 State Budget provides $10 million in one-time funding to plan for and develop a longitudinal data system, also known as the Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System. This initiative seeks to connect data from early education providers, K–12 schools, higher education institutions, employers, other workforce entities, and health and human services agencies. Three representatives from the California Department of Education (CDE) with expertise in early learning activities and educational data reporting will serve on the C2C Workgroup. The CDE will provide support of the C2C Workgroup efforts through existing work in the following areas: Data Requests The CDE enters into data sharing agreements with public and private institutions of higher education as well as non-profit researchers for student-level data consistent with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Specifically, since the spring of 2015 through 2018, the CDE has fulfilled 108 data requests from 91 unique entities, including 11 requests for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. A summary of the requests submitted through the CDE Data Request process are available on the Archived Data Requests tab. Early Education The CDE helps manage several child care and development programs in California. These programs are for children from birth to age twelve. They offer early learning and after-school services to babies, toddlers, children in preschool, and children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Some programs assist children with disabilities and children of migrant farm workers. Many of the programs were set up to help parents with child care while they work. California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data SystemThe California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CDE) operated by the CDE maintains individual-level data including student demographics, course data, discipline, assessments, staff assignments, and other data for state and federal reporting.
Assessment Spotlight Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments. Now Available: CAASPP and ELPAC TOMS User Guide The CAASPP and ELPAC Test Operations Management System (TOMS) User Guide provides detailed instructions for local educational agency (LEA) staff using TOMS. It is now available on the following web pages: CAASPP Manuals and Instructions web page and TOMS Resources web page of the CAASPP websiteELPAC Manuals and Instructions web page of the ELPAC website The guide explains this year's n...
Meet Marilyn Lapkass, the 800th member of our growing community. Marilyn is a PARENT of a student attending the Roseville City School District who was interested in learning more about online testing and assessments. (Psst. We have brand new assessment FAQ section that will be up soon on the website!). Ms. Lapkass is sporting a highly sought after item - the complimentary mug! Thanks for joining or community Marilyn! -Chris
Assessment SpotlightFocusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments.Calendar Reminder: CAASPP and ELPAC System Downtime Fast ApproachingVarious CAASPP and ELPAC systems will be unavailable from Wednesday, January 8, at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, January 14, at 8 a.m. for a scheduled downtime. During the downtime, the following CAASPP and ELPAC systems will not be available:Test Operations Management System (TOMS)Test Administrator InterfaceCompletion Status and Roster Management SystemData Entry InterfaceInte...
You are invited to a unique one-day "Make It and Take It" event for users of i-Ready Date: January 15, 2020 Time: 9:00 am to 3:00 PM PST Location: Charter School Management Corporation (CSMC) Training Facility: 201 N. Brand Blvd., B100 Glendale, CA 91203 We'll explore the product and dig deep into topics like: Single Sign On/RosteringData Warehouse Integration TechniquesAnnual MaintenanceConnecting i-Ready to 3rd party apps (e.g. Illuminate, Aeries, SchoolZilla) Take full advantage of i-Ready's capabilities by learning integration tips and tricks. Come with your questions, concerns, ideas, and headaches. We'll work together and address each one! Meet the i-Ready Team who will be on hand to e...