The frequently asked questions below are intended to provide clarity around the purpose of and differences between the Educator Assignment Monitoring dashboards and the Educator Assignment Workforce dashboards.

FAQ- Educator Workforce and Assignment Dashboards

How does the assignment data get reported?

Assignment data is reported to the California Department of Education (CDE) via the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). This data reflects assignments in place on census date- the first Wednesday in October for each reporting year, as reported by the local educational agency. Assignment monitoring is completed in the Commission’s California Statewide Assignment Accountability System (CalSAAS) through a data sharing agreement established in Education Code 44258.9, in which the Commission compares the assignment data against the educator’s credential authorizations held on that day. The local educational agency (LEA) and its monitoring authority review assignments in CalSAAS for which the Commission did not identify a legal assignment through its system processing. The dashboards include the assignment monitoring outcomes that result from this annual monitoring.

How do these dashboards differ from CDE's Teacher Assignment Monitoring Outcomes (TAMO) report?

Though drawn from the dataset, there are key notable differences: 

  1. TAMO outcomes are calculated using Full-Time Equivalency (FTE), or the percentage of time spent working in a job classification.  However, the Commission’s dashboards present educator assignments, of which one educator many have multiple;   
  2. TAMO is focused on the definitions aligned with California’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan, while the Commission’s are aligned with the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) definitions; and  
  3. TAMO excludes assignments where a teacher cannot be identified by a Statewide Educator Identifier (SEID), while these dashboards include outcomes for these assignments. 

What grade levels are represented in the Dashboards?

The Dashboards include Transitional Kindergarten through grade 12 general and special education, career technical education, student services, and English learner assignments.  Early childhood and adult education are excluded from these data, as CALPADS does not collect data on these types of educator assignments.

What are "misassignments"?

A misassignment indicates that the educator in the assignment did not hold the appropriate Commission-issued credential for the assignment, and was not otherwise legally authorized for the assignment through flexibility afforded in Statute/Regulations. Pursuant to Education Code 44258.9, misassignments should be corrected within 30 calendar days of identification.

What are Local Assignment Options (LAOs)?

Provisions within the Education Code and Title 5 Regulations that permit the governing board of a local educational agency to otherwise legally authorize a fully credentialed educator to serve in an assignment outside of the area authorized by their credential, if specified criteria are met. District policies vary for these options. The Commission has no authority over Local Assignment Options, as they are fully determined at the local level and may require governing board action as well as other requirements. Teacher consent is required for assigning an educator on a LAO.   

Why are the total number of LOAs associated to EC 44865 so high in comparison to the rest?

Education Code §44865 is a Local Assignment Option that allows a local employing agency to assign an educator who has earned a full credential, earned based on a bachelor’s degree and student teaching, to teach any content area without satisfying subject matter competence. An educator assigned based on this flexibility in the law is not required to hold a Commission-issued document that authorizes the content that they teach. This flexibility is limited to the alternative settings provided in Statute, including: independent study, home/hospital, adult education, necessary small high schools, continuation schools, alternative schools, opportunity schools, juvenile court schools, county community schools, and district community day schools. The high usage of EC 44865 in comparison to other LAOs is likely the result of the flexibility being broad without requiring coursework or governing board approval as are required for most other LAOs.  

What are "unmonitored/unknown" in the Educator Workforce dashboards? Are these assignments represented on the trend dashboards?

Unmonitored assignments are those in which educators are serving in an assignment where no licensure is required.  As such, these assignments are reported in CALPADS but are not monitored in CalSAAS. These include: 1) Classified or non-certificated courses that do not require credentials (e.g. Occupational Therapist), 2) Educational Service assignments in charter schools, and 3) Online learner-led, software-based courses that do not have a teacher. 

Unknown assignments are those in which educators cannot be evaluated for preparation. There are several scenarios that prevent the Commission’s systems from being able to ascertain the assignment or credential authorization the educator is using to authorize the assignment.  Due to the incomplete information, the educator’s level of preparation cannot be determined.  These include: 

  • Errors in CALPADS data entry
  • Alternative Special Education Placements
  • Assignments determined as "appropriate" by monitoring authorities during assignment monitoring*
  • "Core Setting" assignments in which an educator cannot be matched to a credential that authorized this type of instruction*
  • Courses determined as "Other" during monitoring
  • Assignments reported with placeholder SEIDs in CALPADS

Note that these assignments were all monitored and determined to be appropriate assignments during monitoring.

Both Unmonitored and Unknown assignments are counted and displayed in the Workforce dashboard but not counted in the aggregations on the Statewide and Regional Trends or Subject Matter board.

How does a charter school differ from a traditional (or non-charter) school in relation to the assignment data?

Charter schools educational services assignments, including administrative services and pupil personnel services, are exempt from monitoring.  These assignments are counted towards the number of “unmonitored” assignments on the Workforce dashboard.  

Why do the various Assignment Monitoring Dashboards display different outcomes than the internal CalSAAS reports?

CalSAAS is designed to assist those that monitor by aggregating multiple assignments under one "exception", so that users only need to address that exception. In this way it saves users duplicative work and helps facilitate the entire monitoring endeavor.

However, in these dashboards, the Commission disaggregates the exceptions so that each individual assignment is accounted for. This is done for several reasons:

  • To provide a more representative picture of the number of assignments that are effected;
  • To provide more accurate insight into the areas of shortage the misassignments and Local Assignment Options represent; and
  • To align with the workforce and CDE's TAMO dashboards.

These dashboards should be viewed from the lens of identifying trends to support progress towards fully prepared and appropriately authorized educators in California. Monitoring and the display of monitoring outcomes is not intended to be punitive. Rather monitoring of educator assignments ensures that teachers are appropriately prepared to serve their students, and also identifies areas of shortage. Misassignments and Local Assignment Options often occur because there are not enough prepared educators for certain positions, or in certain areas of the state. Identification of these shortage areas allows both the State and local level to consider policy changes and support systems to help reduce shortage areas, including guiding recruitment efforts and highlighting the need for grants in a particular area.

On the "Assignment Preparation" view of the Workforce, the number of distinct educators seems unaligned with the total number of assignments.

On the "Assignment Preparation" view of the workforce dashboards there are two informational boxes at the top that show the total number of assignments, and distinct number of educators in the view. These boxes are agile and reflect the filters and selections of the user.

Educators can have several different assignments, some of which they are fully prepared for and some of which they are underprepared for. In other words, their assignments may be counted multiple times in several different preparation levels. That is why the distinct measure is used in the informational box, to distill the number of educators that currently account for the workforce. This number is calculated by counting the distinct number of educators' SEIDs.

There are several assignment scenarios that can contribute to a seemingly incongruent assignment and educator totals. These are:

  1. Some experienced educators may be taking on additional assignments due to shortages;
  2. Some educators may be working on a part time basis, and have few assignments, increasing the number of educators in the pool; and
  3. Some assignment types, like online facilitated instruction or Independent Study, may count individual students as single assignments. Therefore, these modes of instruction increase the number of assignments tallied.

Individual assignments are reported by Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and tracked in the California Department of Education's CALPADS database. Any questions about inconsistencies in reported assignments should be directed to these organizations.

Updated March 18, 2025