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Neat post about data visualization and Covid-19 Country Data

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? 


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Assessment Spotlight - April 10, 2020

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. Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for Distance Learning With the widespread closure of schools in California and the suspension of CAASPP testing due to COVID-19, many local educational agencies (LEAs) are serving their students through distance learning. To aid teachers and other LEA staff during this challenging time, the California Department of Education (CDE) will make available, as an optional resource, the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for u...

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Assessment Spotlight - March 5, 2020

​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. WebEx for All CAASPP and ELPAC Coordinators—Are You Registered? Calling all local educational agency (LEA) CAASPP or ELPAC coordinators: You asked for more frequent updates from California Department of Education (CDE) staff about assessment-related activities; in response, we are pleased to announce the first CDE-hosted All Coordinators WebEx! This will take place on March 18 at 2 p.m. and will cover updates provided by the CDE as well as a question and an...

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Assessment Spotlight - February 27, 2020

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. Summative ELPAC Administration Under Way! Local educational agencies (LEAs) should be administering the computer-based Summative ELPAC, which contains audio files for the Listening and Speaking domains. These audio files are played through the test delivery system and are accessed by students on the testing device. LEA ELPAC coordinators are asked to direct site coordinators and test examiners to use the instructions included in the Directions for Administra...

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Serving Students With Disabilities: The Full Continuum in Schools of Choice - Free Educational Workshop


Charter School Management Corporation, Total Education Solutions, and Megan Moore Law are teaming up to put together a free educational workshop geared towards charter school executive directors and special education directors and coordinators. This interactive session will engage participants in understanding efforts to increase compliance. WHEN: Tuesday, April 28, 20209:00 AM - 1:30 PM (including 30 min lunch break) WHERE: CSMC Glendale Training Center201 N. Brand Blvd., B100Glendale, CA 91203 WHO SHOULD ATTEND: CEO'sExecutive DirectorsPrincipalsSpecial Education DirectorsSpecial Education TeachersHealth Staff HOW TO SIGN UP:​ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/serving-students-with-disabilities...

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CALPADS Update FLASH #169

Disabling of the Student Discipline File on February 25, 2020 In preparation for implementing the new student incident files for the 2019–20 End-of-Year (EOY) 3 submission, the current Student Discipline (SDIS) file and User Interface will be disabled on February 25, 2020. Therefore, beginning February 25, 2020, LEAs will not be able to: Update historical SDIS information through batch or online.View Student Detail Discipline and historical Incident Discipline data in the CALPADS User Interface.Access Operational Data Store (ODS) versions of the discipline reports (reports 7.xx). Therefore, any updates to student discipline data in prior years in the CALPADS Operational Data Store must be ma...

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Assessment Spotlight - February 12, 2020

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. California Science Test and California Spanish Assessment: 2018–19 Summary Results The 2018–19 summary results for the first operational administration of the California Science Test (CAST) and the California Spanish Assessment (CSA) were made available to the public on February 4, 2020. The summary results are reported at the state, county, district, and school levels by grade and student groups. The CAST and CSA summary results are located on the Californi...

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Understanding Participation and Scoring Rules for the Online 2019–2020 Summative ELPAC

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...

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​Assessment Spotlight - Jan 30, 2020

​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. Release of New Smarter Balanced Sample Items and Annotated Anchors Next Week On Thursday, February 6, Smarter Balanced will release more than 100 new items on the Smarter Balanced Sample Items website as well as new annotated anchors for the English language arts/literacy (ELA) assessment. This will be the first release of operational test questions from the summative assessments and will highlight the critical role educators serve in i...

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Meet Marilyn, our 800th Member!

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

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Meet our 700th member!

Say Hi to Aida Wong Gamba, an employee of Brisbane School District.  Aida just happened to be our 700th member, so we sent her a complimentary mug.  Hi Aida!  Welcome aboard! (You gotta have a little fun with this stuff . . . . :) -Chris

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Assessment Spotlight - January 23, 2020

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...

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Assessment Spotlight - January 9, 2020

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...

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Jan 15, 2020 "Make and Take" event for users of the i-Ready platform

​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 ...

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Updated Joint Guidance on Privacy and Student Education and Health Records

December 19, 2019 Updated Joint Guidance on Privacy and Student Education and Health Records The U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released updated joint guidance today addressing the application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to records maintained on students. The guidance, which was first issued in November 2008, clarifies for school administrators, health care professionals, families, and others how FERPA and HIPAA apply to education and health records maintained about students. The revised guidanc...

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CALPADS Flash Update #168 - December 17, 2019

Important Reminder to update the Student English Language Acquisition Status in CALPADS Prior to Summative Testing for the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California All English learners must be assessed annually with the Summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC). In order to be tested, students must have an English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) of English Learner (EL) in CALPADS. Therefore, it is critical that students' ELAS are up-to-date in CALPADS before the Summative ELPAC testing opens on February 3, 2020, in order that students may be tested. In addition, any students' initial ELAS statuses that have been corrected through one of the all...

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Assessment Spotlight Issue #72 - December 4, 2019

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. Summative ELPAC Assessment Results in the California Educator Reporting System The California Educator Reporting System (CERS) now includes Summative ELPAC results from the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years. Local educational agency (LEA) staff who have Test Operations Management System (TOMS) logon credentials can enter CERS through the CAASPP Portal or ELPAC Portal to access student assessment results. Over the next two years, CERS will become the single so...

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CALPADS Update FLASH #165

Topics include: 2019-20 Fall 1 submission requirements modification; viewing Fall 1 SPED certification errors. 2019–20 Fall 1 Submission Requirements Modification The CDE recognizes the hard work of LEA staff to incorporate additional data into the Fall 1 submission, and that doing so requires more collaboration both within and external to the LEA. To enable LEAs to focus on certifying the most critical Fall 1 data, the CDE is making the following adjustments to the 2019–20 Fall 1 submission: Report 16.5 – Students with Disabilities – Student Services by Primary Disability  will be excluded from the set of certification reports that LEAs must approve as part of Fall 1. LEAs, howeve...

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CALPADS Update FLASH #164

Postsecondary Status File The CALPADS File Specifications (CFS) includes a new file, the Postsecondary Status (PSTS) file that will be implemented in 2019–20. This file will be used by LEAs to submit survey data to CALPADS that LEAs previously submitted to the CDE through the Perkins Data System (PDS) and the California Special Education Management Information System (CASEMIS), both of which are now retired. LEAs have generally collected the postsecondary status data for Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway completers and concentrators, and students with disabilities (SWD) who have completed secondary education, through a student survey. LEAs will now submit the data they have collected ...

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