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 for Families: Starting Smarter Websites On April 25, the California Department of Education (CDE), in collaboration with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and Educational Testing Service, launched two new websites to help empower parents/guardians and families to become partners in their children's academic success: Starting Smarter for the CAASPP Starting Smarter for the ELPAC These family-focused websites provide resources to facilitate ...

California Department of EducationNews Release California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-31May 1, 2019 Contact: Jonathan MendickE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that he has appointed Ryan Smith as the new Chair of his statewide Closing the Achievement Gap Initiative. Smith’s work will align with the initiative’s goals, which include addressing ways to close the achievement gap and improving educational outcomes for all California public education students. “Ryan is a leader in the efforts to close the achievement gap, and specifically in how we can use policy, advocacy, and research to make change,” said Thurmond.“I can’t think of anyone better to lead these efforts for our state, which is one of the priorities of my office.” Thurmond launched his Closing the Achievement Gap initiative with a forum in February focusing on schools throughout the state that have shown success in closing the gap for African Americans and other students of color. He followed that up with a second forum in April to address recruitment and retention of teachers of color. Smith’s appointment is the next step in assuring that these efforts continue with the highest priority and level of expertise. Smith is currently Chief External Officer of Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which launched in 2007 as a collaboration between the Los Angeles Unified School District, donors Richard and Melanie Lundquist, the City of Los Angeles, and other public and private partners, to accelerate achievement for students across the district. He was formerly Executive Director of The Education Trust-West, a research and advocacy organization focused on education justice and the high academic achievement of all California students, particularly students of color and those living in poverty. His projects included the Black Minds Matter report, which focused on supporting the educational success of black children in California, as well as the study, “The Majority Report: Supporting the Success of Latino Students in California”. # # # # Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public InstructionCommunications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100 Last Reviewed: Thursday, May 2, 2019

NEWS RELEASEContacts:Ana TintocalisCCEE Senior Communications Manager 916-666-2274 mobileatintocalis@ccee-ca.orgChristine McGrewSBCSS Chief Communications Officerchristine.mcgrew@sbcss.net Thursday, May 2, 2019FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASESix School Districts Selected to Help Spearhead Statewide Community Engagement EffortsSAN BERNARDINO – The statewide Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) has selected six school districts to join the groundbreaking effort to build capacity for meaningful community engagement in California's public schools. The CEI is an integral part of California's new System of Support, a key component of the state's accountability system. The California Collaborative for Educat...

Join us for an informal "Coffee and Donut" discussion about the upcoming changes to the CALPADS course numbering system. We'll give a brief overview of what we believe the changes are, invite questions and comments from the participants, and end on a discussion of the status of SIS vendor's progress in making the updates. Join the meeting: join.me/186-237-588 Thursday, May 9, 2019 10:00 AM  Facilitators: Chris Moggia, Ed.D., Executive Director, CASDAAP Alex Wilson, Coordinator of Student Information Systems, Norwalk La Mirada USD

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 for CAASPP and ELPAC: "Get Involved" Web Pages! Are you interested in getting involved in the continuing development of the CAASPP and the ELPAC? We need input from California educators, and it is now much easier for you to find out about the activities the California Department of Education (CDE) has scheduled and to let us know which ones hold your interest! To learn about upcoming activities, visit our new Get Involved web pages: CAASPP Opportunities ...

Otus is a single platform for teachers that combines an LMS, an assessment management system, a data warehouse, and a collection of classroom management tools in one place- making teachers more efficient than they can be when all of these systems are disconnected.  Otus is excited to be releasing an integration with Desmos within the next few weeks. Watch a 45-second video here. Since the majority of state-level assessments expect students to use the Desmos calculators on the math portions of their tests, integrating the same tools within Otus assessments will allow students to use the tools throughout the year on district, building, or teacher-created formative and summative assessment...

SALT LAKE CITY — April 17, 2019 — Instructure, Inc. (NYSE: INST) today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire MasteryConnect, a longtime partner and innovator in the design and delivery of formative and interim assessment that supports personalized and mastery-based learning. Through this acquisition, Instructure will accelerate the shift occurring at the state level as they replace high-stakes, end-of-year testing with innovative assessment models. This new approach uses formative data to provide actionable insights for teachers and students. "Today's educators are trying to move away from archaic, end-of-year testing and looking for more intuitive evaluation models," said Dan Gold...

 August 2018 "Data for the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) in CALPADS presentation.

Join us at the Southern California PowerSchool user group meeting!Date: Friday, April 26, 2019 Time: 9:00AM to 2:00PM PTContinental Breakfast begins at 8:30AM Location: Fullerton School DistrictEducational Learning Center (ELC)1401 West Valencia DriveFullerton, CA 92833 Sponsored by BlackboardBreakfast and Lunch provided. RSVPPlease use this link to RSVP by Wednesday, April 24th AgendaWhat's New in PowerSchool 19.4New features and even a new version numbering system!Including the most voted Enhancement Request!Product Updates from PowerSchoolHear the latest on Unified Classroom and morePlugin and Customization Showcase (all free or with a free version)PSCBCustom Reports Bundle...

The CDE will provide 3 separate web-based trainings (listed below) for those that are unable to attend an in-person CALPADS Course Codes, Assignment Monitoring and LCAP Federal Addendum Equity Data Training. Participants should attend all three webinars to receive all of the content from the in-person trainings.Webinar 1: Updates in CALPADSDate and Time: April 9, 2019, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.Event number: 668 133 025Event password: 164937Event registration/address for attendees: https://cdeevents.webex.com/cdeevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=e31c911ead8636df6cc0cee8e38722dd4Webinar 2: LCAP Federal Addendum and PEATDate and Time: April 17, 2019, 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.Event number: 661 742 151Eve...

Several new data reports that are now publicly available on the California Department of Education (CDE) DataQuest Website at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/. These reports are based on data submitted and certified in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System by districts and charter schools. These reports include: 2018–19 Enrollment Data Reports Enrollment by Ethnicity and GradeEnrollment Multi-Year Summary by EthnicityEnrollment by Ethnicity (with county/district/school data)Enrollment Multi-Year Summary by GradeEnrollment by Grade (with county/district/school data)Enrollment by Ethnicity for Charter and Non-Charter SchoolsEnrollment by Subgroup for Charter and Non-Charter ...

The 2019 California Educational Research Association's 98th Annual Conference, will be held on November 18-20th in Sacramento, CA. Presentations will focus on: Comprehensive descriptions and demonstrations of real-world "data in action";Research on best practices for creating visual displays of data, as well as communicating results;Innovative uses of data to determine and support children across ages and abilities;Powerful tools and resources to develop our data visualization skills.CERA members are also invited to submit presentation proposals. Consider sharing a presentation about the tools you are using to look at student data, the applications you are using...

​The 2019 California Assessment Conference is a unique opportunity for classroom educators to explore connections between assessments and classroom instruction, and learn how to utilize assessment tools and resources to support teaching and learning. This conference has been designed to create collaboration opportunities for educators who wish to discover how other educators, schools, and districts integrate all components of the state assessment system. A variety of sessions and key topics, covered over two and a half days, allow for a customized learning experience while minimizing time away from the classroom. Participants will learn, explore, find inspiration and return to the classroom ...

E-RATE NEWS FLASHContents:Announcements Funding Commitment Summary Pending Dates and Deadlines Upcoming Training Events E-rate Process: Activities to Work on NowAnnouncements Category 2 Budget Inflation Factor AnnouncedIn the March 8, 2019, Schools and Libraries News Brief, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) announced the Funding Year 2019 Category 2 budgets, indexed to an inflation factor of 2.2%.          By School: Number of students enrolled at school multiplied by $159.669053922          Libraries with an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) locale code of 11, 12, or 21: Tota...

Getting Ready: Changes Coming to AP in 2019-20 Starting in 2019-20, all schools that offer AP will institute new annual processes and receive new AP resources that will help more students earn college credit. A New Exam Ordering Timeline Registration for AP Exams will now take place in the fall. Every AP student deserves the chance to earn college credit, and we've learned that when they're asked to commit early to taking an AP Exam, their chances of earning a score of 3 or higher on the exam increases. AP teachers tell us that when students register early, they're more likely to stay engaged in their classes, tackle college-level content and skills, and develop an "all in" commitment to lea...

End-of-Year 3 Updates and Reminders CERT125 Will Be Disabled and CERT127 Will Become Fatal In analyzing the 2017–18 End-of-Year (EOY) 3 certified data, the California Department of Education (CDE) found that a significant number of local educational agencies (LEAs) did not report suspension records in the Student Discipline (SDIS) file for students who were reported as attending in-house suspension or absent due to an out-of-school suspension in the Student Absence Summary (STAS) file. To further enforce the alignment of discipline incidents to absence summary data, the CDE will implement for the 2018–19 EOY 3 submission, the following changes to existing validations: Disable certification v...

Data Collection in CALPADS for Adult-age Students In California, public K–12 local educational agencies (LEAs) serve three types of adult-age students: Students with disabilities in postsecondary/transition programs enrolled in K–12 schools and programs.Adult-age students attending charter schools with exclusive partnerships with one of the following programs:Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)JobCorpsCalifornia Conservation CorpsYouthBuildAdult-age students attending Adult Education Programs (AEPs) funded with Adult Education Program funding. Recently, there has been confusion about which of these adult-age students should be reported to CALPADS. The purpose of this communicatio...

E-RATE NEWS FLASHContents:Announcements Funding Commitment SummaryPending Dates and DeadlinesUpcoming Training EventsE-rate Process: Activities to Work on NowAnnouncementsCALNET 3 Contract Extensions PostedMany public agencies including public schools and libraries utilize the state master contract CALNET 3 for the purchase of broadband and telecommunications services, some of which may be eligible for E-rate discounts. California's Department of Technology has recently posted extensions to CALNET 3 through June 30, 2020, on the California Department of Technology website. California E-rate applicants citing the CALNET 3 contract on their Funding Year 2019 FCC Form 471 funding requ...

Complying with the Attorney General's Model Policies for K–12 Schools and CALPADS Data Submission Assembly Bill (AB) 699 (Chapter 493, Statutes of 2018) requires the Attorney General (AG), by April 1, 2018, to "publish model policies limiting assistance with immigration enforcement at public schools, to the fullest extent possible consistent with federal and state law, and ensuring that public schools remain safe and accessible to all California residents, regardless of immigration status." The bill further requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to adopt the model policies by July 1, 2018. Pursuant to this legislation, the California Attorney General published the document "Promoting a S...