California plans to implement an educator-level data system that can be linked to the state’s student information system known as CALPADS.

This teacher identifier system, the California Longitudinal Teacher Information Data Education System (CALTIDES), will match teachers to students longitudinally in order to study the effect of teacher preparation and other programs on student achievement. The goal of CALTIDES is to satisfy federal No Child Left Behind and state reporting requirements. It will also help meet requirements to monitor teacher assignments and conduct program evaluations.

Once built, CALTIDES will track teacher characteristics over time. The legislation authorizing the development of this system (Senate Bill 1614, passed in 2006) calls on the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to assign statewide educator identifiers (SEIDs) to all educators working in the K–12 public school system in a position that requires a credential or authorization granted by the CTC. This includes teachers, school principals, most district administrators, counselors, and librarians. CALTIDES will not include information on classified employees—those individuals who do not hold a credential and are therefore not tracked by CTC.

CALTIDES will primarily integrate two existing databases—CALPADS, which collects some staffing information, and CTC’s teacher credential and authorization data—to pull together longitudinal educator data. CALTIDES will also include information on internship and beginning teacher support programs. The data from CALPADS and CALTIDES will be linked using SEIDs.

CALTIDES will allow research on the effectiveness of teacher training programs as well as teacher retention and mobility. The state will also be able to study the training and experience of teachers in hard-to-staff areas, such as math, science, and Special Education. SB 1614 prohibits the use of data in CALTIDES or CALPADS “for the purposes of pay, promotion, sanction, or personnel evaluation of an individual teacher, or groups of teachers, or any other employment decisions related to individual teachers.” Districts with sophisticated data systems can already do this if they and their teachers union agree that it is appropriate.

CDE released a request for proposals (RFP) for a vendor to develop CALTIDES in June 2008, and final bids were projected to be approved in February 2009. The systems integration contract is scheduled to begin in January 2010 with the implementation of CALTIDES in the fall of 2011. In April 2009, the California Department of Education was awarded a $6 million Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institution of Education Sciences to fund this work.

Educator data system: Progress and timeline for completion     

           

√					July 2005		Legislature called for a feasibility study report to build an integrated teacher data system.
√					September 2006		Senate Bill 1614 was signed into law authorizing the educator data system, CALTIDES.
√					May 2008		The Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) assigned statewide educator identifiers (SEIDs) to all certificated employees.
√					June 2008		The California Department of Education released a request for proposal (RFP) to develop CALTIDES.
					February 2009		Final bids in response to RFP approved.
					January 2010		Contract for CALTIDES development begins.
					2011–12		California implements CALTIDES statewide.