Importing Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery data to the Education Data Collection System
Background
The purpose of submitting this information is to provide the CDE with statewide data to determine if Armed Services
Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores are a valid measure to include in the College and Career Indicator (CCI)
as reported on the California School Dashboard. The State Board of Education has requested these data be evaluated
to potentially expand the number of career measures in the CCI. For further details on the CCI, refer to the
College/Career Indicator web page.
The CDE is requesting LEAs to import to EDCS by the submission deadline, the highest individual student ASVAB AFQT scores
students received in the school year. Since testing can occur throughout the calendar year it is recommended that LEAs compile
the data and submit one file at the end of the school year. (Note: LEAs submitted these data to the ASVAB Reporting System in
prior years. The import of data will be the same as in prior years, except LEAs will import the data to the EDCS.)
The CDE communicates information about this collection to:
Accountability and Dashboard Coordinators, who will understand the use of these data, and should facilitate the collection
of these data from school sites for submission to the CDE, and
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) LEA Administrators who will be able to access the EDCS to import data.
(Refer to Step 1 below for how the CALPADS LEA Administrator can request access to EDCS for other staff to enable them to import ASVAB data.)
Note: The ASVAB is administered to high school students and therefore this data collection does not apply to elementary and middle schools.
Before Submitting
Read these instructions and view the samples below to better collect, format and import your student’s ASVAB Armed Forces Qualification Test
(AFQT) scores for the reporting academic year.
Step 1 Data Collection
It is the CDE's understanding that the ASVAB is administered in schools in coordination with the Military Entrance Processing Stations.
Generally, the career technician, head school counselor, or principal acts as the ASVAB site coordinator, and receives results throughout
the year in a paper or electronic file format from Military Entrance Processing Stations. Examples of how schools may receive test results
are displayed below.
LEA must submit ASVAB results for students at all schools in the LEA in one file. Therefore, the LEA will need to identify all the school
sites that administer and receive ASVAB scores and coordinate consolidating all the results for the school year to prepare one file to
import to EDCS. This work can be done by any staff member.
While any staff member can do the work of gathering the data from all schools in the LEA, LEA CALPADS Administrators have been provided
access to EDCS to import the prepared file to the system. The CALPADS LEA Administrator, however, is not required to import data to EDCS,
and this task may be assigned to another staff. However, if a staff member other than the CALPADS LEA Administrator will import data to
EDCS, the CALPADS LEA Administrator must request access to EDCS for that staff member by sending an email to
educationdatacollection@cde.ca.gov.
Please put 'Request User Access' in the subject line and provide in the body of the email the following information for the staff
member: First and last name, position, email, phone number. Refer to Step 3 for details on accessing EDCS.
Note: CALPADS LEA Administrators are approved by the CDE and there are only one or two CALPADS LEA Administrators per LEA.
If you are unsure who is your CALPADS LEA Administrator, use the Search LEA CALPADS Administrator web page.
Snapshot of a sample workbook your school may receive, the Student Test Session Report.You may also receive the ASVAB Summary in PDF that looks similar to the example below.
Regardless of how your schools receive the information, the core data that will come from ASVAB testing results will be:
Highest AFQT score for the academic year
Test Date this score was earned
Student who owns the score
Grade level when the test was taken
In the next step, you will combine the individual student ASVAB AFQT information with data the school will have for the student.
The final text file described in the next step will also require a valid CALPADS Statewide Student Identifier (SSID), corresponding
County-District-School (CDS) code for the school of attendance, and academic year the AFQT score was received (which should
always be the reporting year).
Step 2 Create CSV File
Once you have gathered your individual student ASVAB AFQT information, you will need to format a text file to import to EDCS.
The file may be a comma delimited, or caret delimited file with a .CSV or .TXT extension.
Follow the next steps to create the text file ready for import to EDCS.
Open a workbook in a spreadsheet editing program (such as Excel) or download the ASVAB Sample CSV Data File.
In the order listed below, format your header row (first row of the worksheet) with each attribute as the column header.
Below is an explanation of each data field.
cds_code: This is the 14-digit unique county, district, school (CDS) code where the student is enrolled.
Make sure a code that start with 0 retains the 0 in the CSV file. If you are an independently reporting charter
school, provide your school code. To search County, District and School information, select the
CDE School Directory link.
academic_year:
This is the academic year when the student took the ASVAB test and obtained a score. Format must be CCYY-CCYY.
For example, 2023-2024. You will always be reporting scores received in the academic year the test was taken.
ssid: This is the 10-digit unique CALPADS Statewide Student Identifier for the student.
grade_level: This is the student's grade level for the reported academic year. Accepted grade levels are 10, 11 or 12.
score: This is the AFQT score given to the student after completing the ASVAB test. Accepted score range is 0-100.
test_date: This is the date when the ASVAB test was taken, formatted CCYYMMDD. For example, 20230415.
Input, import, add the correct data for each student. There is not a limit to the number of schools or students that can be imported.
Here is an example of a CSV file using spreadsheet software which includes 2 schools:Here is an example of the same CSV file using a text editor:
Review your file to ensure all data is valid and accurate. EDCS will validate that the file is formatted correctly.
After the data has been imported to EDCS and extracted, the CDE will check that the CALPADS Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) is
valid, and that students were enrolled at the LEA during the academic year. Therefore, it is important that LEAs ensure the accuracy
of the SSID. Any submitted records with invalid SSIDs will not be used.
Once the file is prepared, save the file as a text file on your local computer with either .CSV or .TXT extension.
Save the file with CSV extension
Navigate to the EDCS login page to import your file.
Step 3 Navigating to EDCS and Importing ASVAB Data
Begin by selecting the EDCS Login link to open the Education Data Collection System web page.
The CALPADS LEA Administrator or other staff member who has been granted access to EDCS (refer to Step 1),
must first retrieve their password by selecting the 'Reset password?' link from the EDCS User Login page.
You will then receive an email with instructions for how to create/reset your password.
Once you have your password, login to EDCS with your email and password.
Select the ASVAB program and you will be redirected to the ASVAB Dashboard.
From the ASVAB Dashboard select your LEA from the drop-down box.
Once you have selected your LEA, to initiate the import of ASVAB data, select the Import ASVAB Data for 2023-2024
button and you will be redirected to the ASVAB Import page.
Follow the instructions on the ASVAB Import page. When you are ready to import the file you created in Step 2,
select the Choose File button, and a Windows Open dialog box will appear. Navigate to your file within the
dialog box and select the file you want to import. Once you have selected your file, and the dialog box closes,
you will see the file name of the selected file displayed.
Once you have selected your file, select the Import ASVAB Data for 2023-2024 button. EDCS will begin importing your file.
If the data in your file is valid, you will receive a message stating 'Import was successful'. However, if
there is something wrong with how the file is formatted or with data in the file, you will receive an error
message which will identify for each error, the row number that has the error along with a description of the
error. You must correct all errors and then repeat the import process.
Once you have successfully imported the file, navigate back to the ASVAB Dashboard and confirm the file was
submitted. You should see the file you just imported in the table under the 'Active Submission' section on the
Dashboard. If there was a prior active file, that file should now be displayed in the table under the
'Archived Submissions' section.
Remember that the file is a full replacement of the previously imported file. Therefore, data for all schools
must be in the file; if data for one school is submitted in one file, and a subsequent file is submitted with
data from another school, it will replace the data from the first school. Additionally, after importing your
file to EDCS, if you need to correct data or add students to the file, you will need to correct/add data to
the file and then reimport the file to EDCS. When the new file is submitted, it will replace the previous file.
