CAASPP - ELPAC: Troubleshooting Data Discrepancies

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:      December 9, 2022

Subject:  CAASPP and ELPAC: Troubleshooting Student Data Discrepancies

This message is intended to assist Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in troubleshooting data discrepancies related to California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) testing.

This message has also been sent to LEA CAASPP and LEA ELPAC Coordinators and has been developed in collaboration with the CDE California Outreach Teams for CAASPP and ELPAC and the CALPADS teams.

Data from CALPADS is automatically sent to update the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) and other systems. Therefore, it is important for the LEA CAASPP or ELPAC coordinator to work closely with the LEA’s CALPADS administrator to ensure student data is being uploaded in a timely manner. It is critical that student data is accurate and up to date in CALPADS. LEAs have been reporting the following issues that are described in the next sections; some of these can be resolved at the local level.

Missing Student Information in TOMS

Student data will not appear in TOMS until the appropriate CALPADS Student Enrollment (SENR) and Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) files have been uploaded and posted into CALPADS. Although students may be visible in the LEA’s student information system (SIS), the student data must be uploaded by the CALPADS coordinator into CALPADS before the data appears in TOMS. The Student Information (SINF) record with the student’s address must be submitted to ensure the student’s address is included on the Student Score Report (SSR), which will help to facilitate mailing the SSRs to parents/guardians.

Timeline for information transfer:

• On day one, the CALPADS file is uploaded from the LEA.
  • Overnight, the file is processed.
• On day two, the student data appears in TOMS.
• On day three, the student appears in the test delivery system (TDS) and can then participate in taking assessments.
  • Changes to student test settings will be available in the TDS within a two-hour window during business hours.

Initial ELPAC and Initial Alternate ELPAC criteria for a record in TOMS:

• Grade level must be K–12.
• Enrollment status must be 10 (Primary) or 30 (Short-Term).
• Primary Language must be a language other than English or American Sign Language.
• Student demographic data must have an Effective Start Date in CALPADS that is less than or equal to the student’s Enrollment Start Date.
• English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) must be TBD (to be determined).

Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) Assignment Issues

The following Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) assignment issues may require an SSID swap. Please refer to the SSID Swap Criteria for Multiple Identifiers (MIDs) and Retired SSIDs web page at https://ca-toms-help.ets.org/important-info/ssid-swap-criteria/ [Note: The preceding link is no longer valid. Here is a new link for the SSID Swap Criteria for MIDs and Retired SSIDs web page: https://ca-toms-help.ets.org/stairs/appeal-submission/ssid-swap-criteria] for more information.

Incorrect Assignment of Another Student’s SSID

This happens when a CALPADS administrator is resolving a MID anomaly and accidentally merges two SSIDs that actually belong to two different students. This results in students being given the wrong logon card with an incorrect SSID. In these cases, coordinators can file an SSID swap case in the Security and Test Administration Incident Reporting System (STAIRS).

Multiple Identifiers (MIDs)

This happens when a CALPADS administrator requests a new SSID for a student who already has an existing SSID. There has been a significant increase in the creation of MIDs for students who already have SSIDs and may have already been tested. Therefore, it is very important that LEAs take the following steps to avoid the creation of MIDs:

• Use the CALPADS SSID Matching Tool to determine whether a student already has an SSID and use the manual student search in CALPADS as a backup to the tool.
• After SSIDs are assigned, resolve any outstanding MIDs immediately (the same day if possible, before the file is sent to TOMS).
• If MIDs are created, avoid testing the student before the MIDs are resolved.

Once the MID is discovered and the two SSIDs are merged for the student, one of the SSIDs is then retired. In the event a student completed or began testing under a retired SSID, there is a chance that the Educational Testing Service (ETS) will need to complete an SSID swap to move the testing data for the student to the correct SSID.

Once it is determined that an SSID swap is required, an LEA coordinator will send the following information to the assigned LEA Success Agent. Assigned agents can be found on the Success Agent Lookup web page on the ETS website at https://ca-toms-help-qc.ets.org/contact/lea-success-agents/.

• LEA Name
• LEA county-district-school code (CDS code)
• Incorrect SSID used for the student
• New or corrected existing SSID for the student
• List of parts of assessments completed, including score entry in the Data Entry Interface (if ELPAC tests are involved)
• Test administration window end date (if CAASPP tests are involved)

Special Education Data in CALPADS

For students to be assigned accommodations, the student must be marked “Y” in the CALPADS Special Education field or 504 Plan field in TOMS.

For the student to be assigned an alternate assessment, the student must be marked “Y” in the Special Education for Testing field in TOMS.

If there are changes to these fields, LEA coordinators receive an automated email from TOMS informing them of the change in special education status. The primary reason a student with disabilities changes from “Y” to “N” is because the student has enrolled in a new LEA and that LEA has not yet sent a special education (SPED) record to CALPADS for that student at the new LEA. LEA coordinators should check with their special education data coordinators to ensure the SPED records are sent to CALPADS.

Attempting to Administer the Initial ELPAC and Initial Alternate ELPAC to Students Who Have Already Been Tested

TOMS automatically sends the student’s initial English language acquisition status (ELAS) information to CALPADS after testing is completed. Students with the following ELAS in CALPADS cannot take the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC, as the students have already been tested:

• English learner (EL)
• Initial fluent English proficient (IFEP)
• Reclassified fluent English proficient (RFEP)

LEAs can also determine which students need to take the Initial ELPAC and Initial Alternate ELPAC by downloading the LEA-Level Student Demographics Report. This report contains columns listing the ELAS, which should display “TBD” (to be determined) prior to assessing a student, and the primary language for each student, which cannot be English or American Sign Language.

Changes in Grade Level

Ensure student grade levels are accurate prior to testing. If a student’s grade level is changed in CALPADS during the school year, the student may not be able to access the tests at the new grade level depending on whether the student has begun testing. If a student started a summative test before the grade level change occurs in CALPADS, the grade assessed field for that student is locked at the original grade. If a student has not started a summative test for that administration year, the grade assessed field for the student will reflect the newly enrolled grade level.

CALPADS ELAS Does Not Match TOMS ELAS

After the Initial ELPAC and Initial Alternate ELPAC, LEAs sometimes mistakenly modify student data in CALPADS, such as a student’s primary language, causing a rejection of the initial ELAS record being sent from TOMS. When these records are rejected, this prevents a student’s initial ELAS from appearing in CALPADS even though the student has been tested.

To avoid this issue, while the student is being tested with the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC, LEAs should not perform any of the following actions:

• Modify the student’s grade level in CALPADS to prekindergarten or adult.
• Delete the TBD record in CALPADS.
• Change the date of the TBD record to a date after the student’s test completion date.
• Modify the primary language in the TBD record to English or American Sign Language.
• Submit an ELAS of English only (EO) for the student.

Statutory corrections to a student’s ELAS should be completed after the initial ELAS from TOMS has been populated in CALPADS. Once TOMS has updated CALPADS, the LEA may then change the student’s status and use the proper CALPADS correction code to annotate the reason for the change. For more information, refer to The Correction of Classification Process—At-a-Glance web document located on the CDE website at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ep/documents/correctelpacatglance.pdf.

If an LEA is experiencing other technical issues or needs answers to other questions, please contact either the assigned LEA Success Agent (which can be found on the ETS Success Agent Lookup page on the ETS website here: https://ca-toms-help.ets.org/contact/lea-success-agents/) or the CALPADS office by phone at 916-324-6738 or by email at calpads@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

CALPADS Team
and
California Outreach Team

• CAASPP website: https://www.caaspp.org/index.html
• ELPAC website: https://www.elpac.org/
• Contact the California Outreach Team: Get Help with California’s Assessment System: https://ca-toms-help.ets.org/contact