Record Layouts

Every research file starts with the same identifying columns and then diverges according to how the test reports achievement. The state publishes the authoritative layout for each test and year; this page summarises the parts the importer relies on. app.ingest.layouts encodes them.

Note

The importer matches columns by name, not by position. A file with an added column still loads, and a file whose columns do not match any known layout is rejected rather than silently misread.

Identifying columns

CAASPP files

Column	Meaning
County Code	Two digits. 00 on the statewide row.
District Code	Five digits. 00000 on state and county rows.
School Code	Seven digits. 0000000 above the school level.
District Name, School Name	Present on the rows for that level; blank above it.
Type ID	04 state, 05 county, 06 district, 07 school, 09 direct-funded charter, 10 locally funded charter.
Test Year	The spring of the administration: 2025 means 2024–25.
Test Type	B, X, R, A or Y — see Assessments.
Test ID	The test — see Assessments.
Student Group ID	The reported group — see Student Groups.
Grade	The grade or aggregate — see Grades.

ELPAC files use the same concepts with compact column names — CountyCode, StudentGroupID, TestID — and no Test Type column, since the test ID identifies the assessment on its own.

Warning

The two programs number Type ID differently. CAASPP uses 07 for a school and 06 for a district; ELPAC uses 01 for a school and 02 for a district, with 04 meaning the state in both. Reading the value as though it had one meaning mislabels every ELPAC row. This application derives the reporting level from the CDS code parts instead, which agree across both programs, and uses Type ID only to identify charters.

Count columns

Column	Meaning
Total Students Enrolled	Students eligible to take the test.
Total Students Tested	Students who were administered it. Excludes parent/guardian exemptions, significant medical emergencies, and assigned students who did not test.
Total Students Tested with Scores	Students who answered enough questions for a valid score. The denominator for the mean scale score.
Overall Total	Students counted across all achievement levels. The denominator for the level percentages.

Achievement columns by test

Smarter Balanced and CAST report four levels and publish a combined proficiency figure:

Percentage/Count Standard Exceeded, Standard Met, Standard Met and Above, Standard Nearly Met, Standard Not Met.

CAA and CAA for Science report three levels and no proficiency figure:

Percentage/Count Level 3, Level 2, Level 1.

CSA reported Percent/Count Range 1–3 through 2023–24 and Percent/Count Level 1–3 from 2024–25.

Summative ELPAC reports OverallPerfLvl1Pcnt through OverallPerfLvl4Count; Initial ELPAC reports NoviceELPerfLvl…, IntermediateELPerfLvl… and IFEPPerfLvl….

Reporting categories

Beneath the overall score, tests publish areas, domains or composites. Smarter Balanced names them only by position, and the position means different things in each subject:

Column group	English language arts/literacy	Mathematics
Area 1	Reading	Concepts and Procedures
Area 2	Writing	Problem Solving
Area 3	Speaking/Listening	Communicating Reasoning
Area 4	Research/Inquiry	not reported
Composite Area 1	Reading and Listening	Concepts and Procedures
Composite Area 2	Writing and Research	Mathematical Practices

CAST reports three domains — Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Earth and Space Sciences. The CSA from 2024–25 reports Listening, Writing, Reading and Speaking domains plus an Oral Literacy and a Written Literacy composite, each composite carrying its own mean scale score. The Summative ELPAC reports Oral Language and Written Language composites — with mean scale scores and four levels each — plus Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing domains at three levels.

Important

The bands are printed in different directions. Smarter Balanced areas run above, near, below standard; CAST domains run below, near, above. The importer normalises every breakdown so that band 1 is always the lowest performance, which is why a single query serves every test.