June 11, 2008
Dear Selected CALIFORNIA BASIC EDUCATIONAL DATA SYSTEM (CBEDS) Coordinators:
The CBEDS is a statewide database that is derived from an annual statewide data collection administered on the first Wednesday in October by the Educational Demographics Office of the California Department of Education (CDE). Local educational agencies (LEAs), including county offices of education and school districts, submit data on staff, students, and schools to the CDE. Three separate forms are used to collect these data: the County/District Information Form (CDIF), which gathers data on staff and students; the School Information Form (SIF), which collects staff and student data specific to schools; and the Professional Assignment Information Form (PAIF), which collects data on certificated staff from LEAs.
This letter includes a summary of the changes to the October 2008 CBEDS data collection. We are making you aware of these modifications now, so that your LEA will be prepared to report these data by “Information Day,” October 1, 2008. On this day, each LEA is responsible for collecting all CBEDS data and submitting the data to the CDE. As a California School Information Services (CSIS) state reporting LEA, your CBEDS data must be submitted through CSIS, with the exception of charter schools in your district that are not participating in your CSIS state reporting process. Enclosed with this letter is the CBEDS Coordinator Information Survey that will allow you to update your CBEDS coordinator information for 2008.
We ask that each LEA designate a CBEDS coordinator. In a CSIS state reporting district, the CBEDS coordinator’s responsibilities will be to work closely with the CSIS coordinator in your LEA and verify the accuracy of the data submitted through CSIS. In some districts, the CBEDS coordinator and CSIS coordinator may be the same person. In many districts, CBEDS coordinators also respond to questions about CBEDS data from school district staff, other government agencies, the media, and the public.
Graduates and dropouts previously collected on the SIF form have been completely removed. These data will continue to be collected through the Annual SSID Maintenance.
The following changes were made to the Estimated Number of Teacher Hires section:
The Physical Education/Health/Dance subject area is now listed as three separate subject areas.
If your LEA has charter schools that are not participating in your CSIS state reporting process, the CBEDS coordinator will remain responsible for the submission of CBEDS data for these charter schools. The CBEDS coordinator’s responsibilities include distributing materials to schools, checking data prior to submission, and ensuring that data for these charter schools are returned to the CDE. We also ask that the CBEDS coordinator work with these charter schools to verify submitted data on the pre-certification Web site.
If your LEA has one or more charter schools that are not submitted as part of your LEA’s CSIS state reporting process, you will automatically receive the CD-ROM that contains the CBEDS PAIF Data Entry Assistant (DEA) software. Collect and submit the data required on the PAIF for all non-CSIS participating charter schools in your LEA using the CBEDS data entry assistant (DEA) software. There are instructions on using the CBEDS DEA software with non-CSIS participating charter schools at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/chartersubmission.asp. Please submit the PAIF data over the Internet by October 31, 2008.
Each submission of an LEA’s non-CSIS participating charter school information must include all of these schools in your LEA, so please ensure that individual charter schools do not use the CBEDS DEA software to submit their school’s data separately to the CDE.
This year’s SIF/CDIF data will be collected through the Online Public Update for Schools (OPUS), which is an Internet-based application that will include formatted data entry screens. Additional instruction on this new data submission process will be sent to you in late August.
Please update the enclosed coordinator information survey and send any changes to the CDE by Monday, June 23, 2008. We will continue to provide CBEDS notifications and updates via e-mail, so please verify that your e-mail address is accurate. Your CBEDS password to access the contact information survey update screens and the 2008 PAIF software is printed on the enclosed survey.
We encourage you to use the Internet to update your information at http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/coordlogin.asp.
If you do not have Internet access, our office address is preprinted on the back of the survey, so you may fold and return the survey by mail, or you may fax it to 916-327-0195.
If you have any questions regarding this letter or the survey, please contact the Educational Demographics Office at 916-327-0219.
Sincerely,
Karl Scheff, Administrator
Educational Demographics Office
KS:md
Enclosure
cc: County and District Superintendents.