Educational Demographics Office
California Department of Education
Revised 11/18/2008
Certification of CBEDS and LC Data
Both CBEDS data and LC data are collected from local educational agencies (LEAs) once a year and represent either point-in-time data or summary data over a specific period of time. Therefore, these data are static rather than dynamic. The CBEDS and LC data are made available to the public, the media, and other agencies primarily through the Internet, although some printed reports are provided upon request.
Prior to its release, CBEDS and LC data must be "certified." Certified indicates that the information collected was edited and reviewed by CDE staff, corrected if needed, and where feasible, verified by the original data provider. It is important for districts to carefully verify their data before the files are certified, since changes made to a certified file allow for a proliferation of different data files and/or reports to be generated from the same year of data. Therefore, changes after certification are granted in only a few cases.
LEAs Responsibility to Certify Accurate Data and Adhere to Data Quality Standards
When submitting data to the California Department of Education (CDE), LEAs have a responsibility to submit and certify accurate data. LEAs should ensure that there is a process in place that includes validating the data by reviewing any available summary reports as well as checking the source data. This process may include a data review by each school principal, English learner coordinators, etc. Ideally any data certified and submitted to the CDE are validated and submitted correctly and will not need later corrections. The data correction process is costly not only at the state-level, but also costly for LEAs.
If errors are identified in previously certified data, it is expected that all necessary corrections are identified so that it will not be necessary to submit additional corrections. As an exception, it may be necessary to correct data going back multiple years, but standard practice should be to review for data quality once and only for the previous year.
Although there is no specific state law that restricts multiple corrections, the CDE instructs school districts to establish and maintain good data management practices and procedures. Good data management practices and experience informs us that data quality doesn't increase when multiple corrections are being implemented over multiple years.Policies to Modify Certified CBEDS or LC Data
Since data are collected as a point-in-time, changes should reflect the status of students and/or staff as of the point-in-time for that specific data collection. If an LEA realizes that their certified CBEDS or LC data were reported incorrectly, or if new information has been learned about the status of students and/or staff in relation to the specific school year, follow the guidelines outlined on this page to notify the CDE of inaccuracies in certified data.
Correcting Enrollment, Dropout, or Graduate Data (CBEDS Only)
Since CBEDS enrollment, dropout, and graduate data are used to determine funding and to calculate high stakes performance indicators (including No Child Left Behind [NCLB] Adequate Yearly Progress), inaccurate data from these three areas are treated in a different manner than other data. Following are the policies for amending these data:
Correcting Enrollment Data
| Data Being Corrected | Process for Correcting Data |
|---|---|
| Correcting October 2008 enrollment data derived from the student-level Annual Statewide Student Identifiers (SSID) Maintenance | October 2008 school enrollment data are derived from the Annual SSID Maintenance data submission. To correct inaccurate 2008 enrollment data, the LEA must submit student-level corrections, generate new Annual SSID Maintenance reports, and then certify their newly-created Enrollment Summary report. LEAs should be aware that generation of the new Annual SSID Maintenance reports automatically de-certifies their data. As a result, LEAs must make certain they certify the new Enrollment Summary report. Any corrections made using this process after the end of the CSIS Fall Submission Amendment window (January 30, 2009) and prior to August 14, 2009, will be batched and sent to the CDE. At that time all corrections will be applied to the CDE’s enrollment databases. Corrections to October 2008 enrollment data will not be accepted after August 14, 2009. |
| Correcting October 2007 enrollment data derived from the student-level Annual Statewide Student Identifiers (SSID) Maintenance | The window for correcting enrollment data for the October 2007 data collection closed August 29, 2008. While the official student-level and derived school-level data files are final, the LEA may elect to notify the CDE of enrollment corrections for this data, and CDE will post a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of data inaccuracies. These corrections will not be made on the CDE enrollment database files. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. This information will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data. |
| Correcting October 2006 enrollment data derived from the student-level Annual SSID Maintenance | The window for correcting enrollment data for the October 2006 data collection closed August 31, 2007. While the official student-level and derived school-level data files are final, the LEA may elect to notify the CDE of enrollment corrections for this data, and CDE will post a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of data inaccuracies. These corrections will not be made on the CDE enrollment database files. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. This information will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data. |
Correcting enrollment data for years: 2005-06 (collected on CBEDS October 2005) |
Enrollment data collected prior to October 2006 were collected through the CBEDS SIF, and not derived from Annual SSID Maintenance. To notify the CDE of corrections to enrollment for these years, submit on district letterhead a letter signed by the district superintendent with a brief explanation of the changes that need to be made. Attach to the letter a copy of the incorrect CBEDS SIF data, either from the original report submitted to the CDE or an equivalent report. Reports must include the original source-level data; do not submit reports with district-level aggregates of the data to be corrected. Line through the incorrect information and write in the correct values next to the original information. Mail the letter and amended reports to: Educational Demographics Office Once the requested change has been made, the certified data files will be corrected and re-posted on the CDE Internet site. Modification dates will be clearly marked in the "Data Files (Downloadable)" section of the CBEDS Web page and a change notification will be included in the "What's New" section of DataQuest. These corrections will be applied to the CDE’s enrollment database. Please allow up to three week for the corrections to show up in these databases. |
Correcting enrollment data on CBEDS prior to October 2005 |
The window for correcting enrollment data prior to the October 2005 data collection is closed. While the official school-level enrollment data files are final, the LEA may elect to notify the CDE of enrollment corrections for this data, and CDE will post a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of data inaccuracies. These corrections will not be made on the CDE enrollment database files. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. This information will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data. |
Correcting Graduate and Dropout Data
| Data Being Corrected | Process for Correcting Data |
|---|---|
| Correcting for 2007-08 (collected on CBEDS October 2008) graduate and dropout data derived from the student-level Annual SSID Maintenance | To correct inaccurate 2007-08 graduate and dropout data derived from the October 2008 Annual SSID Maintenance, the LEA must submit student-level corrections, generate new Annual SSID Maintenance reports, and then certify their newly-created Enrollment Summary report. LEAs should be aware that generation of the new Annual SSID Maintenance reports automatically de-certifies their data. As a result, LEAs must make certain they certify the new Enrollment Summary report. Any corrections made using this process after the end of the CSIS Fall Submission Amendment window (January 30, 2009) and prior to August 14, 2009, will be batched and sent to the CDE. At that time all corrections will be applied to the CDE’s graduate and dropout databases and no further corrections will be accepted. |
| Correcting for 2006-07 (collected on CBEDS October 2007) graduate and dropout data derived from the student-level Annual SSID Maintenance | The window for correcting graduate and dropout data for the October 2007 data collection closed August 29, 2008. While the official student-level and derived school-level data files are final, the LEA may elect to notify the CDE of graduate and dropout corrections for this data, and CDE will post a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of data inaccuracies. These corrections will not be made on the CDE enrollment database files. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. This information will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data. |
Correcting graduate and dropout data for years: 2005-06 (collected on CBEDS October 2006) 2004-05 (collected on CBEDS October 2005)
|
Dropout and graduate data collected prior to October 2007 were collected through the CBEDS SIF and not derived from the Annual SSID Maintenance. To notify the CDE of corrections to graduates and/or dropouts for these years, submit on district letterhead a letter signed by the district superintendent with a brief explanation of the changes that need to be made. Attach to the letter a copy of the incorrect CBEDS SIF data, either from the original report submitted to the CDE or an equivalent report. Reports must include the original source-level data; do not submit reports with district-level aggregates of the data to be corrected. Line through the incorrect information and write in the correct values next to the original information. Mail the letter and amended reports to: Educational Demographics Office Once the requested change has been made, the certified data files will be corrected and re-posted on the CDE Internet site. Modification dates will be clearly marked in the "Data Files (Downloadable)" section of the CBEDS Web page and a change notification will be included in the "What's New" section of DataQuest. These corrections will be applied to the CDE’s graduate and dropout database. Please allow up to three week for the corrections to show up in these databases. |
Correcting graduate and dropout data on CBEDS prior to 2004-05 |
Corrections of graduate and dropout data prior to 2004-05 are not supported by the CDE. The LEA may elect to notify the CDE of enrollment corrections for this data, and the CDE will post a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of data inaccuracies. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. This information will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to the CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data |
Modifying Data Other Than Enrollment, Dropout, or Graduate Data (CBEDS and LC)
LEAs requesting to change inaccurate CBEDS information other than enrollment, dropout, or graduate data or to correct inaccurate LC data, may submit a written explanation of the error from the district's superintendent to the Educational Demographics Office. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. Unless the CDE was responsible for the inaccuracy, the certified CDE database will not be changed. Instead, a listing of the schools, districts, and counties that notified the CDE of the error(s) will be posted on the "Notification of Inaccuracies in Certified Data" Web page to inform users of the inaccuracies reported to the CDE after the file was certified. The paper copies of the corrections will be kept on file at the CDE and are available for users of the data.
CDE Processing Error (CBEDS and LC)
If inaccurate information in the certified CBEDS or LC data files was a result of a CDE processing error, the district may submit a written request from the district's superintendent to the Educational Demographics Office to correct the information. See the Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified section below for instructions on how to submit changes. The certified files will be corrected and re-posted on the CDE Internet site. Modification dates will be clearly marked in the "Data Files (Downloadable)" section of the CBEDS and Language Census Web pages and a change notification will be included in the "What's New" section of DataQuest.
Procedures to Notify the CDE of Inaccurate CBEDS or LC Data that Cannot Be Modified
To notify the CDE of inaccurate CBEDS or LC data that cannot be modified, submit on district letterhead a letter signed by the district superintendent with a brief explanation of the changes that need to be made. Attach to the letter a copy of the incorrect CBEDS or LC data, either from the original report submitted to the CDE or an equivalent report. Reports must include the original source-level data; do not submit reports with district-level aggregates of the data to be corrected. Line through the incorrect information and write in the correct values next to the original information. Mail the letter and amended reports to:
Educational Demographics Office
California Department of Education
ATTN: CBEDS/LC Modification
1430 N Street, Suite 6308
Sacramento, California 95814
Funding and Changes After Certification
There are a number of funding opportunities available to LEAs that use CBEDS and LC data as part of their funding calculation. Each funding opportunity has its own specific funding model and use policies. Because of these differences in programs, changes made to certified CBEDS and LC data may or may not affect the original funding amounts granted to an LEA. The LEA will need to directly contact the appropriate CDE program or fiscal office for clarification on whether these "late" changes would impact funding the LEA receives.
Listing of Inaccuracies Submitted to the CDE
View a listing of the schools, districts, and/or counties that have submitted notifications of inaccuracies in certified data to the Educational Demographics Office.
