2013 co act student biographical data

An overview to help you have a successful data submission.

Assessment Unit

2013 CO ACT Student Biographical Data

What’s in this overview?

Slide No. What, When, & Why 3-5 What’s new for 2013 6 TCAP and CO ACT SBD Differences 7-15 Steps in the Process 16-25 CO ACT Sample Reports 26-31 11th Grade Alternate 32 Contact Information 33

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Colorado Department of Education

Student Biographical Data (SBD) Review is a review of the demographic data submitted for each student who took the 11th grade CO ACT assessment.

SBD for CO ACT will be an electronic process in which districts will be able to update their data using the Automated Data Exchange (ADE) at the Colorado Department of Education.

CO ACT SBD: What

Colorado Department of Education 04/22/233

Opens on Friday, June 21, 2013Closes on Tuesday, July 2, 2013Districts cannot make changes to CO

ACT data after July 2.

CO ACT SBD: When


The 11th grade CO ACT assessment is part of the Colorado Student Assessment Program.

Results are included in the calculations for the accountability ratings for the District Performance Framework (DPF) and the School Performance Framework (SPF) (high schools only).

Participation rate on the CO ACT is also calculated for the DPF and SPF.

CO ACT SBD: Why


Nothing new in the ADE data update for 2013 Foreign Exchange Students:

For this year districts may identify foreign exchange students to the CDE Assessment Unit through a separate file. Students included in this file will be excluded from accountability performance calculations. Foreign exchange students are considered non-residents and their parents reside in another country. These students will be associated with the following in the Student October collection: An attendance code of 04 (Non-resident, Choice – public schools of choice) or 05 (Non-Resident Non-

Choice. State of Parent’s Residence is a country code other than the United States (see

https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/countrycodes.htm for valid values)

Policies will be clarified for future years.

What's New for 2013


CO ACT allows for blank responses in many fields. Fields left blank are treated as the most common response which is usually listed first on the file layout sheet. This is often the value of “A”. This means that if you want a value other than that default you must enter a value and not leave it blank.

There is No NCount process for CO ACT

Differences between CO ACT and TCAP SBD


Some fields are not changeable based on the way ACT deals with self-reporting student data.

There are several fields that were changeable in TCAP SBD that ACT does not allow to be changed and are thus not included in the file layout for CO ACT SBD.EthnicityGenderDOBStudent name will appear in the file but will not be

changeable.



Changeable CO ACT fields: ACT School Code SASID Block V Questions

New to School (Q1) Continuously Enrolled (Q2) Migrant/Immigrant Status (Q3) Language Background (Q4) Eng. Language Learner Program (Q5) Primary Disability (Q6) Test Accommodations (Q7) Educational Programs (Q8) Free/Reduced Lunch (Q9) Testing Status (Q10) Race/Ethnicity (Q11)



If there is an error in where the record is being reported, the ACT school code may be changed to place the record in the proper school by using the following procedure.

A list of ACT school codes can be found at:

https://ade.cde.state.co.us/actcodes.htm



Changes are allowed to the ACT School Code when the wrong code has been entered.

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Changes to ACT School code continued

If a district needs to move a record from a school in one district, they must…

Communicate with the district to which they are moving the student and receive approval before changing the ACT school code.

The sending district should also ask the receiving district for the correct data for the record in question. The receiving district will not have the opportunity to change the records they receive as these transfers will be made by ACT after the window closes.

It is suggested that all communication regarding changes of ACT school codes be in writing. Email provides a satisfactory method of doing so.



Changes to ACT School code continued.

Each error/warning report obtained after a school code has been changed will exhibit a warning for records on which any ACT school codes were changed. This warning is for information only and will not stop processing. It is meant to help districts double check changes.

Any changes in the ACT school code which moves records will not be reflected on school reports until the data has been changed by ACT after July 6th.

Differences betweenCO ACT and TCAP SBD


It is appropriate to move a record if an ACT school code was miscoded at testing time and this is confirmed by both districts or schools.

A record may also be moved if a student took the CO ACT in a school other than the one where he or she was officially enrolled at the time of testing.

When is it appropriate to move a CO ACT record from one school or district to another?



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Duplicate Records: How will they be handled?

DO NOT delete duplicate records if they are found in your file. ACT will attempt to find duplicates before they send the file to

CDE If duplicates are still found, ACT will determine which record is

valid and will be retained. Please contact staff at CDE—see contact information at the end of this document.



On CO ACT the SASID match will only be a check to verify that the SASID on the record is a valid one in the RITS system at CDE.

Names, DOB, and Gender will not be matched in this check.

SASID Check for CO ACT SBD


Important: ADE Respondents

If you need to add or change an CO ACT respondent from last year, the Respondent information form is located on the web at:https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/actsbd_respform.htm

The STEP BY STEP Process


IMPORTANT: Computer Requirements

Computer must meet requirements on ADE website Can be either PC or MAC

Configured to use a RECENT version of either Netscape Navigator (4.7) or Internet Explorer (IE 5.5) (minimum)

Have MS Excel or some other spreadsheet or data analysis software capable of creating space delimited (.prn) files



Downloading Your File

Sign into the ADE system at CDE using your district user name and password as well as your personal user name and password. Full instructions for using the ADE system are available at

https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/doc_toc.htm#actsbd in the section title documentation. (Look for the ACT section).

After you have logged in, download the file named actxxxx.cs1 or actxxxx.tx1. The cs1 file is a comma delimited file while the tx1 file is an ASCII text file. It is your choice on which to use, although the cs1 file imports easily into Excel using the file import wizard. (For more information see: https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/doc_toc.htm#actsbd and click on the section describing how to use comma delimited and text files).



Formatting the File and Accessing Reports

Import the file into your spreadsheet software and format it. There are complete instructions for using Microsoft Excel at https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/doc_toc.htm#actsbd . Carefully follow these directions. A header/template is available at this same website to help with formatting.

If you are using Excel, make sure to change each field to a text field (detailed steps are in the Excel instructions).

Save the formatted data file to your computer ‘desktop’ or in a computer file folder.

If your file has not been formatted correctly, it will not be the correct length and will not be accepted by the ADE system.



Initial File Submission to ADE

Save your formatted Excel file in Excel first and save again as a ‘space-delimited text’ file (.prn). STEP BY STEP instructions are available in the instructions for using Excel and using the ADE system on the ADE website).

Your file should be named: actxxxx.01a. Use your district number in place of the “xxxx”.

Before making any changes to the data, submit the “.prn” file back to the ADE system which will accomplish two things. It will let you know if your formatting is correct before you make a lot

of changes that could be lost if reformatting is necessary. It will allow you to get an ERROR, WARNING REPORT which will

facilitate determining the data that need to be modified or added if missing.



Correcting the Data

Once your file has been accepted by the ADE system as formatted correctly, you can begin to update and correct the data.

Make an extra copy of your work as an Excel file and then make your submission as you did in a previous step.

Review your reports to find any further data changes that are needed. Continue to submit your file and review reports until you are no longer

receiving errors, and you are ok with any warnings on your reports. (Each submission will have a higher number. For example, your first submission will be actxxxx.01a the next will be actxxxx.02a etc.



Approving the Data

When you pass all edit checks and are satisfied with your data you must: Download and check your “Final Data Summary Report” Approve your data following the instructions on using the ADE website.

Follow the screen shots on “USING THE ADE WEBSITE” until you are certain you have approved your data.

IF YOU DO NOT APPROVE THE FILE, YOUR DATA WILL REVERT BACK TO THE INITIAL VERSION!

See the following screen shot.



As with TCAP SBD you must see the following screen to finish the CO ACT

SBD Process


REMEMBER!!!

CO ACT SBD closes 07/02/13.There is absolutely no flexibility because of need to

meet ACT’s deadlines; to publish reports; to calculate DPF/SPF, etc.



After CO ACT SBD Closes on July 2, 2013

CDE sends file to ACT for processing. ACT will send final data back to CDE. CDE posts the final version of data and reports on ADE.

Districts will be notified when the final reports are available. This final data review is for informational and verification

purposes only; no further changes can be made after July 5th.



These are generated for your review and verification of the CO ACT demographic data.

The following are examples of the reports that will be available to districts.

CO ACT Sample Reports


A successful file submission to ADE must be achieved before this report will be generated.

Other than the initial reports, this will be the only report available until all edit checks for errors (not warnings) have been passed.

This is a guide as to what must be changed to pass errors and warnings.

Remember errors stop processing and must be corrected before the file can be approved. Warnings do not require corrections before approval but should be reviewed carefully and corrected where possible.

Edit/Error Report


Edit Error Report SampleNote: Edit report will look slightly different because the formatting was adjusted to keep information together for

this presentation..


06/30/2011 Colorado Department of Education Page : 112:30 PM 2010-2011 ACT Student Biographical Data Collection Report: ACTREB Edit Error Report File : actXXXX.eba District: XXX DISTRICT NAMEData file: act0130.04a Total # of records in data file : 3,586Total # of errors for data file : 49

Error: If a student is reported as having an IEP, then that student must have a reported disability.

•The edit report lists each student in each category with ‘errors,’ (highlighted in red here) that need to be fixed.

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Summary Reports provide a disaggregated report of counts for each school’s data. It is shown at the school level.

Examine the final version closely to be sure it is accurate. These reports will show only those fields that can be

changed in SBD This allows you to find errors that may not be exposed in

the error/warning process.

Summary Reports


Summary Report Example


School: 0000 NEW HIGH SCHOOL ACT HS Code:060025

Block T Variable Variable Value Count Q1 October New to school yes 9 no 216

Q8 Educational Program None 0 IEP onlyIEP only 200 200 504 only 0 Title I only 0 IEP and Title I 25 504 and Title I 0

Q4 Language Background English 215 Spanish 9 Other 1 Blank or Invalid 0

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The previous example shows…

200 of your 225 students on an IEP — this is “unlikely.” Even though these records may not be coded correctly,

they would not trigger an error or warning or appear in any other warning or error report because they meet the edit rule for students on an IEP.

Summary Report Example Cont.


For those 11th graders not taking the ACT because of participation in the 11th Grade Alternate Assessment (online), the SBD process was handled during the SBD for TCAP/TCAPA, not during the CO ACT SBD.

No matches will be made between CO ACT and 11th Grade Alternate Assessment records during this process.

11th Grade Alternate Assessment


Specific questions about the CO ACT SBD process contactChristine Deines, [email protected]

303-866-6877 Jessica Allen, [email protected]

303-866-6281

CO ACT SBD Contacts


2013 co act student biographical data

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