ACCOUNTABILITY
Slow progress on School Dashboard metrics points to need for state-level accountability
CSBA calls for a state operations and support plan to aid LEAs in closing the achievement gap
The California Department of Education released the latest edition of the California School Dashboard on Nov. 13, touting a “continued increase in academic achievement and graduation rates” and a “reduction in chronic absenteeism.” While some growth was evident, a look at the underlying data reveals a more complicated picture of student performance — one that demands greater scrutiny of the status quo, increased investment in public schools, and a commitment to reducing achievement gaps by accelerating achievement, particularly for the state’s most vulnerable students.
CSBA is calling on state leaders to hold their agencies and policymaking bodies more accountable for the level and quality of support they provide local educational agencies in closing the achievement gap. This approach is not only about a system change, but it’s also about a more robust change in mindset. CSBA believes it’s time for the state to turn from a compliance approach toward a customer-service approach to help — not direct — LEAs. The creation of a state operations and support plan should establish clear benchmarks, goals, standards and regular evaluations of the measures the state itself will take to change its operations to help LEAs close the achievement gap.
Dashboard results
Academic achievement
English language arts
Collectively, performance for all student groups increased by a total of 5.1 points in English language arts (ELA), remaining at the “low” performance level, 8.1 points below the grade-level standard for the Smarter Balanced summative assessment or California Alternate Assessment. Four out of the 14 student groups scored in the “low” tier: Long-term English learners (LTELs) (-104.5 points below the standard), students with disabilities (-89.4), foster youth (-79.8) and homeless youth (-68.9).
Math
The progress in math was equivalent to that in ELA, although overall performance remains dismal. Students as a whole scored 42.4 points below proficiency, a 5.2-point improvement from the 2024 results. LTELs (-158.9), foster youth (-121.9), students with disabilities (-120.7), students experiencing homelessness (-102.8) and African American students (-95.8) registered in the “low” status level.
Graduation rates
Graduation rates continued upward 1 point to 87.8 percent and, after years of more robust growth, appear to have stabilized around that level. Pacific Islander students saw substantial gains (4.1 points) bringing them closer to the state average. Most groups contributed to the increase; however, graduation rates decreased for white students (-0.2), students of two or more races (-0.4) and English learners (-1.1). The graduation rate for Asian students remains very strong at 92.6 percent.
English learner progress
English learner (EL) progress was essentially flat from 2024, increasing only 0.7 percent. The percentage of EL students who progressed at least one English Learner Progress Indicator level on the summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California increased 1.4 percent from 2024, while the percentage who maintained at levels 1, 2 and 3 also grew 1.1 percent.
School culture
Suspensions
Suspension rates plateaued with no student group increasing or decreasing more than 1.1 percent in either direction. Suspension rates for LTEL students remain high at 7 percent, along with those for Black students (7.7 percent) and foster youth (13 percent).
Absenteeism
Recent progress on improving attendance since pandemic-era closures has slowed substantially in 2025. Chronic absenteeism fell 1.5 percent from 2024 as compared to a decline of 5.7 percent the year before.
Differentiated assistance
A total of 418 school districts and county offices of education are eligible for differentiated assistance (DA), a slight decrease from 436 LEAs in 2023–24. Students with disabilities, LTELs and homeless students were the student groups that most frequently met the Local Control Funding Formula priority area criteria for determining DA eligibility.
The California School Dashboard results continue a trend of modest, uninspiring growth for the state’s students that has been tolerated for far too long. CSBA’s call for the state to create a state operations and support plan to aid LEAs in closing achievement gaps is the kind of dramatic measure needed to jumpstart gains in the major metrics of student performance. Find out more at www.csba.org/closethegap.