CALPADS Update Flash #293

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:      December 5, 2024

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #293

2024−25 Fall 2 Changes

This Flash summarizes Fall 2 changes that were not described in Flashes 287, 288, and 289, which covered the following information:

• Flash 287: Includes changes implemented by September 17, 2024, as part of the 2024−25 school year rollover. This primarily included code changes.
• Flash 288: Includes 2024−25 changes related to special education.
• Flash 289: Includes a summary of all the Fall 1 and Fall 2 Certification Validation Rules and their conversion status to Data Discrepancies/Certification Data Discrepancies.

This Flash includes 2024−25 Fall 2 changes, the most significant of which were described during the September 2024 CALPADS Regional Update Meetings. Fall 2 Certification Reports will begin rendering on December 18, 2024 based on the published CALPADS Calendar, which is available on the CDE CALPADS web page via the Calendar link at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/rptcalendar.asp.

Staff Service Years Must be Updated Annually

The number of Staff Service Years Total is used to identify “ineffective” teachers on the Teacher Assignment Monitoring Outcome (TAMO) report. Therefore, it is important for Field 7.30 – Staff Service Years LEA, and Field 7.31 – Staff Service Years Total reported for staff in the Staff Demographics (SDEM) file to be accurate. Therefore, LEAs should collect the total number of service years for newly hired staff at the LEA, and then annually increment the Staff Service Years LEA and Staff Service Years Total for all current staff reported during Fall 2.

To better ensure the quality of this data, a new validation will trigger on SDEM records that do not have an Effective Start Date in the reporting year.

LEAs Now Required to Report Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) percentage for Employees on Leave

Currently, Input Validation Rule (IVR) SASS0118 (Staff Job Classification FTE Percentage Less than 1 or Employee on Leave Percentage Greater Than 0) is being modified so that it will no longer exclude employees on leave. This means that LEAs will be required to populate Field 8.14 – Staff Job Classification FTE Percentage on the Staff Assignment (SASS) file with a percentage of FTE for staff with a Non-Classroom Based or Support Assignment of 6018 – Employee on Leave.

This change is being made because these staff, particularly teachers who are the “teacher of record,” have assignments (courses) reported in CALPADS that are sent to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) for assignment monitoring purposes in California Statewide Assignment Accountability System (CalSAAS). The assignment monitoring outcomes are needed for federal reporting and for the TAMO report in DataQuest. Since both federal reporting and TAMO reporting are FTE-based metrics, the assignments for staff who are on leave cannot be included without a corresponding FTE associated with the relevant staff.

LEAs Prohibited from Sending Specified Files to CALPADS for Preschools

A new validation is being implemented that will trigger when the following files are submitted with a School of Assignment that is a preschool (where both lowest and highest grade level served are equal to Preschool – PS):

• Staff Assignment (SASS)
• Student Course Section Enrollment (SCSE)
• Student Course Section Completion (SCSC)
• Postsecondary Status (PSTS)

LEAs Prohibited from Submitting Student Course Enrollment/Completion records for Future Academic Years

A new Input Validation Rule (IVR) CRSE0534/CRSC0534 prohibits an LEA from submitting course enrollment and completion records for future academic years. This validation was implemented during the 2024 CALPADS End-of-Year (EOY) submission. This information is included in this Flash because 2024 Fall 2 is the first time that LEAs may receive this error.

New Supporting Extract 4.3 – Staff Teaching Assignments - Detail

A new supporting extract for report 4.3 will be created for Fall 2. As with previous supporting extracts, these are made available in the event a Snapshot report does not render. Users can find this on the Extracts page in the CALPADS system under Supporting Reports Extracts.

New Mapping of State Course Codes to Subject Content Areas

Note: There is nothing that LEAs need to do regarding the change described below. This change is being communicated for your information.

The Teacher Assignment Monitoring Outcomes (TAMO) report on DataQuest displays, for the reporting year, Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) teachers by monitoring outcome by subject. Currently, on the TAMO report, all FTE staff teaching Career Technical Education (CTE) courses are included in the “subject” of “CTE” and therefore the report does not provide a comprehensive view of the number of FTE for staff teaching in specific subjects or content. For example, FTE for staff teaching CTE courses that include primarily computer programming content are not included in the subject of “computer education,” because they are included in the subject of “CTE.” Therefore, to create a more comprehensive view of the FTE for staff that are teaching specific subjects in California’s public schools, the CDE has mapped all CTE courses into subject areas that reflect the specific content being provided in the given CTE course.

With this new mapping, when prior years’ course-related reports are uploaded to DataQuest, the reports will reflect the new mapping, and they will thereby provide a more comprehensive view of the number of courses offered in California by subject.

LEAs see the content area category in columns on most of the course reports within CALPADS. Once the change is implemented, the content area category will change for CTE courses and a few other non-CTE courses. LEAs will be able to see the subject or content area for all courses in the CALPADS Valid Code Combinations document, in the existing “Content Area Category Assignment Code” and “Content Area Assignment Name” columns in the Course Group Master Combo tab. The majority of state course codes are mapped to the same content area category to which they were mapped in the past.