Under the direction of CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy, 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.

CSBA is encouraged to see gains made across student groups on the 2025 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and acknowledges the bright spots in districts across the state. But the challenge is scaling pockets of excellence into widespread proficiency. Overall progress and a slight closure of the achievement gap are hopeful signs, but incremental gains of a point or two is far short of what’s needed to address persistent and significant achievement gaps.

“For decades, the State of California has held local governing boards accountable through various mechanisms, including, for example, audits and state mandates, but has never held its agencies or policymaking bodies accountable for the quality and accessibility of the support and assistance provided to local educational agencies laboring to improve student achievement,” Billy said. “The state has not created a comprehensive, coherent plan to hold itself accountable for its own role in closing the achievement gap; instead it relies on unfunded or underfunded mandates and, at times, the implementation of disparate funding programs to implement a desired approach.

“CSBA is calling on state leaders to hold their agencies and policymaking bodies more accountable for the level and quality of support they provide LEAs 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 or concierge’ approach to help — not direct — LEAs,” Billy continued. “This service-oriented mindset must be self-reflective and focus on examining and establishing benchmarks, goals, standards and regular evaluations of the measures the state itself will take to change its operations in order to help LEAs close the achievement gap.”

During an Oct. 9 webinar attended by education leaders, policymakers and media, CSBA called for the State of California to adopt a coherent, state-level plan for how it will better support the work of LEAs to close achievement gaps. The announcement coincided with the release of the 2025 CAASPP results, which showed modest gains and a narrowing of some achievement gaps, but also revealed massive performance differences between student groups. Student performance has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and millions of California students are failing to reach proficiency.

Despite broad improvement, just 48.8 percent of all students met English language arts (ELA) grade-level standards and 37.3 percent hit the mark in math. Only a third of African American students attained proficiency in ELA and just one-fifth met the standard in math. Among Latino students, almost 39 percent met standards in ELA and just over a quarter did in math.

By comparison, 61.8 percent of white students were proficient or advanced in English language arts (ELA) and 51 percent cleared that bar in math. Put another way, almost 40 percent of white students did not meet the state’s proficiency standards in ELA and 49 percent did not meet proficiency in mathematics. Among Asian students, 74.4 percent met or exceeded standards in ELA and 70.3 percent did so in math.

Although proficiency rates for African American and Latino students rose between 2 and 2.4 percent from the 2024 results it would take decades at the current pace for scores in those groups to approach those of their white and Asian peers. The incremental growth underscores the need for increased action at the state-level — both through its own agencies and by virtue of its policymaking and operations — to accelerate closure of achievement gaps that have persisted over generations, costing California critical intellectual, economic and social capital.

CSBA is calling for a reframing of the conversation from local accountability alone to one where the state is held accountable for state policy, operational and budget actions that impact the ability of LEAs to improve student achievement. The association is calling on the state to:

• Develop and adopt a coherent state-level plan for closing the achievement gap that delineates what the state is going to do differently to support LEAs, including annual benchmarks and transparent reporting on the state’s actions
• Embed state-level measures to close the gap within the Governor’s budget and pass legislation explicitly aimed at augmenting the state’s ability to support LEAs in lifting the performance of struggling student groups
• Require the Legislative Analyst’s Office to produce regular assessments on the progress and efficacy of state programs aimed at closing the achievement gap
• Host legislative hearings and create a public “State of the Gap” dashboard to track progress over time
• Align the work of state agencies and hold them accountable for ensuring their policies and decisions enable LEAs rather than constrain them

CSBA is urging state leaders to support the development of a comprehensive state-level plan with targeted resources for supporting LEAs, clear goals and transparent accountability focused on what the state itself will do differently to better support LEAs in their ongoing work to close the achievement gap.