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برچسب: Californias

  • Early literacy funding raises reading scores of California’s lowest performing schools

    Early literacy funding raises reading scores of California’s lowest performing schools


    An elementary student reads on his own in class.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Research by Stanford University found that 75 of the lowest-performing California elementary schools that received funding from an out-of-court settlement made significant progress on third-grade state Smarter Balanced tests this year.

    The results indicate that the $50 million the schools received for effective reading instruction in the primary grades carried over to third grade after two years of funding. 

    “The fact that we were able to budge third grade comprehension assessments with a grant that was focused on TK, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, with a light touch on third grade, is amazing,” said Margaret Goldberg, literacy coach at Nystrom Elementary in West Contra Costa Unified, one of the schools that received the Early Literacy Support Block Grants, or ELSBs.

    The 75 schools had the lowest scores in the state in 2019 on the third-grade Smarter Balanced test. They received the money, averaging $1,144 per year for the 15,541 K-three students, under the settlement in the lawsuit, Ella T. v. the State of California, brought by the public interest law firm Public Counsel. It argued that the state violated the students’ constitutional right to an education by failing to teach them how to read adequately.

    Eligible schools were chosen from various districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, West Contra Costa Unified and others. The funding promoted the literacy instruction known as the “science of reading,” which includes explicit phonics instruction in kindergarten and first grade, along with the development of vocabulary, oral language, comprehension and writing.

    Schools had the flexibility to choose to fund literacy coaches and bilingual reading specialists, new curriculum and instructional materials, expanded access to libraries and literacy training for parents. Schools were encouraged to participate in professional development in the science of reading and seek guidance on their literacy plans from the Sacramento County Office of Education, which oversaw the grants.

    Released Monday, the study concluded that the block grants “generated significant (and cost-effective) improvements in English language arts achievement in its first two years of implementation as well as smaller, spillover improvements in math achievement,” wrote researchers Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, and Sarah Novicoff, a Stanford doctoral candidate in educational policy.

    Students in the funded schools were scoring at the bottom of the scale in 2019, and, despite significant progress, few had achieved reading at grade level in 2023. Dee and Novicoff credited the early education grant for increasing third graders’ achievement by 0.14 standard deviation, the equivalent of a 25% increase in a year of learning, compared with demographically similar students who did not receive the funding. Researchers also found a similar gain by comparing the scores of third graders in the schools with the grants with third-grade scores of fifth graders from the same schools who had not benefited from the funding.

    The Smarter Balanced reports results in four performance bands: standard not met, standard nearly met, standard met and standard exceeded. The schools with the grants succeeded in raising scores by 6 percentage points from the lowest category to standard nearly met, significantly reducing the number of students requiring intensive help. Still, after two years of funding, only 13.5% of students are proficient in reading, having met or exceeded standard. That’s 3 percentage points higher than in 2018, and 1 percentage point above pre-pandemic 2019. Schools with similar students not receiving the grants remain below where they were before Covid, according to the research.

    Dee and Novicoff were unable to analyze why some schools performed better than others, which could be useful in shaping the state’s policy on early literacy. Unlike some states with comprehensive literacy plans, California does not collect any assessment data that school districts collect from TK to second grade. And, under the rules that the state negotiated in the settlement, participating schools were not required to submit their assessment data to the California Department of Education; most voluntarily did in the second year, but many did not in the first year. It’s also unclear how many schools adhered to their literacy plans or focused on less effective or ineffective strategies for improvement. 

    Researchers used the only complete set of state-level data to which they had access — third-grade reading comprehension assessments. Those scores may have understated the progress in reading that many schools made on district assessments in the first and second grades.

    Public Counsel filed the Ella T. v. the State of California lawsuit in 2017, and the settlement went into effect during the height of the pandemic. Dee said the early success of the program during Covid, amid teacher shortages and extremely high chronic absences, made the results even more striking. 

    The third graders who took the Smarter Balanced test in 2023 “were the hardest hit by the pandemic. They were in kindergarten when it was interrupted by Covid,” Goldberg said. “They attended first grade remotely. In second grade, in schools like mine, which chose to adopt new curriculum, their teachers had never taught the curriculum before.”

    Dee noted the academic gains from the grant were relatively large compared with the cost, making the program quite cost-effective — an effect size that is 13 times higher than general, untargeted spending.

    Goldberg said the grant was efficient “because early intervention is cheaper and it’s more effective than waiting until third grade or later grades to provide reading support.”

    The grant funding ends in June 2024. Dee said whether schools can sustain improved scores without specific funding support is an open question. Novicoff mentioned that the grant schools may be able to continue receiving support for literacy coaches and reading specialists if they receive funding from the new Literacy Coach and Reading Specialist Grant program. 

    Instead of being based on performance, the literacy coach grants are awarded to schools with high unduplicated pupil percentages, or the number of students who are eligible for free or reduced meals, are English language learners or are foster youth. Schools eligible for an early literacy grant may also qualify for a literacy coach grant. 

    Dee said design and implementation are key if the state hopes to continue or scale this success. This means paying close attention to school-based literacy action plans, oversight and resources with some flexibility. “This is a story about how schools that get money tend to do better — money does matter in schools, and this is another piece of evidence into that bucket,” Novicoff said, “but it also shows that what we can do with the money and how you structure that funding really does matter.”





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  • California’s missing kids: Much of the loss explained

    California’s missing kids: Much of the loss explained


    The pandemic had a devastating impact on learning, experts say, with lasting ramifications for the world of education at large.

    During the chaotic period when California families were running scared, public schools were shuttered and playgrounds off-limits, an estimated 152,000 California children went missing from classrooms, according to a collaboration between Stanford professor Thomas Dee and The Associated Press.

    Now, after a new analysis of the most recent data, experts say they know what happened to roughly 65,000 of those children, meaning the number of missing kids has shrunk considerably, leaving only an estimated 87,000 children still missing from public school rolls. The mystery of exactly where they went lingers, however.

    This analysis tracked plummeting public school enrollment from 2019-20, when the pandemic first struck, to 2022-23, by the time schools had reopened. During that rocky time, the school-age cohort in California, the nation’s most populous state, plunged by about 188,000, according to census data, while the number of home-schoolers rose by 8,431 and private school enrollment grew by about 28,000, according to the report. 

    Tallying all the known factors accounts for about 65,000 students of the state’s total decline of 152,000. Do the math and that leaves roughly 87,000 students, or 28% of the enrollment decline. Where these students went remains unknown, but experts suggest there are myriad factors to consider.

    “These data are generative of questions that matter for education policy. … I would encourage you to think of it as an important indicator and kind of a canary in a coal mine,” Dee said.

    Data suggests some of the overall decline in enrollment stems from children who have simply aged out of the system at this point. Basically, the school-age population is much smaller than it once was, with 188,000 fewer children in the 7-18 age range in 2022-23. If you were 16 when the pandemic started, you are no longer in this cohort. 

    After all, California, like the rest of the nation, is grappling with the aftershocks of a declining birthrate. The state’s birth rate is at its lowest level in roughly 100 years, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report. The steep cost of child care coupled with the high cost of housing are often cited by experts as among the key reasons for the falling birth rate.

    “Demographic change is continuing to accelerate,” said Dee, “the graying of the country and the continued decline in the number of school-age children.”

    As a whole, there’s been an unprecedented exodus from public schools nationwide that experts say has been worse in states like California that focused on remote learning. This trend initially most deeply impacted the youngest learners, such as kindergartners, who struggled mightily with Zoom school. While many experts expected public school enrollment to bounce back sharply as the pandemic faded from view, that has not been the case.

     “At the time I thought to myself, this is likely to be a temporary phenomenon,” said Dee. “I was expecting them to crowd into kindergarten in fall of 2021 or skip ahead to first grade, having lost a key kind of developmental opportunity by forgoing kindergarten. And was surprised to see that neither occurred.” 

    The continued sustained missingness in places like California and New York raises questions for which we still don’t have answers.

    Thomas Dee, the Stanford education professor who led the analysis

    Many families also fled the Golden State, seeking greener pastures in more affordable spots. That has led to losses in California and gains in Florida, for example.

    “In many places, the demographic trends were accelerated by pandemic mobility,” said Dee, “the fact that families reshuffled around the country and out of states like California and New York.”

    Many children also switched to homeschooling, which held extra appeal for parents amid recurring outbreaks. Private schools, which resumed in-person classes faster than public schools, also got a big boost. 

    Outdoor education and “forest schools” also gained in popularity. Notably, many parents who first tried alternative schooling arrangements during the pandemic have stuck with their choices. 

    “There’s been this resetting of enrollment patterns across public and nonpublic settings that is enduring,” Dee said. “We’re seeing that in terms of the sustained growth in nonpublic schooling. … We’re in this new normal where there’s this stickiness there.”

    The bad news for public schools is that there are still tens of thousands of children who seem to have fallen off the grid. They didn’t leave the state, they didn’t go to private or homeschool. While there’s a chance some children are being homeschooled without filling out the required big pile of paperwork, there may still be a missing cohort out there.

    It should be noted that possible explanations for these remaining missing kids are both numerous and complex. Some of it may be families keeping kids in preschool instead of enrolling them in kindergarten. Some of it may be high-schoolers getting jobs but not officially dropping out.

    Part of it might be newly homeless families, displaced by the tidal wave of post-pandemic evictions, who can’t get the kids to school amid their other struggles. Part of it could also be the margin of error on the census population estimate. 

    “The factors you mention could be occurring simultaneously,” notes Dee.

    One near certainty is that the ongoing disengagement with the public school system seems to cut deep. That’s one reason chronic absenteeism has also been escalating, experts say. In the 2021-22 school year, a third of students in California’s public schools were chronically absent, an all-time high. That’s more than three times the rate of absenteeism before Covid. 

    This spike also holds nationally. One analysis estimated 14 million chronically absent students during the 2021 school, an increase of nearly 7 million since 2017.

    Going Deeper

    View kindergarten enrollment changes from 2019 to 2021 in California with EdSource’s interactive map.

    Some say it may be indicative of a lack of student and parent engagement.  Some of that dissatisfaction may have been triggered during remote learning at the height of the pandemic, some say, when parents got to experience what their children were learning firsthand. 

    “The pandemic gave parents a rare window into the classroom via Zoom,” said Bill Conrad,  a Bay Area educator for 47 years and author of “The Fog of Education.”  “They were not impressed with the failed teaching practices, especially for reading. Parents elected to provide different learning opportunities for their children. Can you blame them? They are protesting with their feet.”

    This trend is particularly disturbing from an equity lens, some say, because families without resources cannot simply shell out for private schools, work at home to manage homeschooling or hire tutors. That may widen the already unsettling achievement gap, some fear. 

    “The biggest challenge from my point of view is the socioeconomic inequity,” said Jenny Mackenzie, director of the literacy crisis documentary “The Right to Read.” “In other words, families who would like to take a break from the public school system … cannot afford to do that.”

    Some families who lost faith in the ability of schools to meet the needs of students across a wide range of issues, including literacy and numeracy, may need to feel that their voices are being heard. The pandemic was the tipping point, some say, but the issues may go beyond school closures. 

    “Since the pandemic, more parents question whether their child is better off in school,” said Scott Moore, head of Kidango, a nonprofit organization that runs many Bay Area child care and preschool centers. “This is good news because parents should question everything about California’s education system. Decade after decade, less than half of students are proficient in language and math. Perhaps it is the instructional methods or curriculum that lack proficiency?”

    Forging stronger connections with families who face challenges with school attendance may also be part of the solution. 

    “The reasons behind student absenteeism are incredibly complex, and so the responses have to be complex as well,” said Heather Hough, director of Policy Analysis for California Education, noting that the first step should be asking families what challenges they face coming to school.

    Low-income students and students of color often feel less sense of belonging at school than their peers, research suggests. Strengthening that frayed bond may not be easy, some warn, but it is necessary.

    “School is sometimes a source of trauma, and even intergenerational trauma, disproportionately for historically marginalized groups,” said Shantel Meek,  founding director of the Children’s Equity Project, an advocacy and research organization based at Arizona State University. “We’re all familiar with the data on harsh discipline and how Black children are more harshly disciplined than everybody else, despite not having any worse behavior.”

    Some suggest we may be approaching a watershed moment, a time for education to pivot to better meet changing student needs.

    “Public education has failed to shift post-pandemic to the new way of learning,” said Alex Cherniss, superintendent of Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified. “Now students and families are seeing alternative ways, and often better ways, to learn.  As a result, homeschooling is at an all-time high, remote learning is mainstream, and public school can either evolve or continue to deteriorate.”

    Amid the looming ambiguities, one certainty emerges. Snowballing enrollment declines are poised to undermine the financial stability of the public school system just as pandemic relief funds expire and learning loss deepens. 

    Enrollment has fallen at nearly three-quarters of California school districts over the last five years, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, and these losses are expected to continue, with state officials estimating a drop of over a half million students by 2031–32.

    “That’s so important at this moment,” Dee said, “because we’re seeing many school districts struggle with chronic under-enrollment of their schools and having to reckon with the fiscal reality of that at a time when ESSER (emergency school relief) funds are going to sunset.”





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  • What you need to know about California’s Prop. 28 arts education initiative | Quick Guide

    What you need to know about California’s Prop. 28 arts education initiative | Quick Guide


    Preschool children learn to express themselves through painting.

    Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Mendoza

    Amid a national reckoning over learning loss and chronic absenteeism deepened by the pandemic, arts education may be one of the keys to boosting children’s engagement in school, research suggests. Like sports, the arts can spark the kind of excitement that makes students, and their families, look forward to coming to school. 

    Devotees of the arts have long argued that art transforms us, but in recent years, neuroscience has shown just how beneficial arts education can be for children. Music, for instance, can buttress the architecture of the growing brain. Theater classes teach empathy, history and literacy all by putting on a show. Creativity, storytelling and the spirit of play ignite learning, effortlessly building the memory and concentration that academic rigor demands.

    Low-income children often see the biggest gains. That’s why making arts education accessible to all is the thrust of Proposition 28, the state’s historic arts mandate, which voters approved in 2022. Spearheaded by former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner, the initiative began doling out money to schools last year.

    However, the groundbreaking program has run into several significant hurdles during its rollout, including a deep teacher shortage, widespread confusion about spending rules and pointed disagreements about how to interpret the law. Arts advocates are scrutinizing district arts budgets, and some are pushing for a state audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has been accused of misspending funds in an ongoing lawsuit filed by families and Beutner. 

    What do students learn from the arts?

    The lessons of arts education are vast, from creativity to cognitive boosts. That’s why it has always been part of a classical education. From the arts, children learn focus, discipline and teamwork in addition to how to sharpen their own sense of voice and ingenuity, vital skills in a future likely dominated by artificial intelligence (AI). Originality is essentially a human gift, one that machines can only imitate. 

    What is Prop. 28?

    Proposition 28, the Arts and Music in Schools — Funding Guarantee and Accountability Act, sets aside money, roughly $1 billion a year, for arts education programs in TK-12 public and charter schools. Schools must be state-funded to receive Prop. 28 funding: a windfall for arts education, a once-renowned field long eroded by budget cuts. 

    Who is in charge of Prop. 28?

    While each school has been tapped to choose the kind of arts education that best suits its community, the California Department of Education (CDE) is leading the implementation of the initiative. CDE has provided guidance in FAQs and webinars to help districts navigate the rules. Questions can be emailed to Prop28@cde.ca.gov. 

    How much money do schools get?

    Funding, which gets funneled through the district, is variable depending on the size of the school and the number of Title 1, low-income students there. The money is ongoing, and school districts have up to three years to spend each allocation. Disbursements began to land in February 2024.

    What is the money supposed to pay for?

    Arts disciplines are broadly defined, from dance to digital arts, and schools are encouraged to tailor the program to the shifting needs of students over time. However, most of the funding is intended to pay for arts teachers. In general, at least 80% of the funds are for school staffers, certified or classified employees, to provide arts education. Up to 20% is for arts education support, including training, supplies, materials and arts partnerships. No more than 1% of total funds may go to administrative costs.

    Is there a waiver from the spending rules?

    The CDE may provide a waiver to school districts for “good cause” if the 80/20 rule cannot be followed. Waiver requests must include a problem statement, framing the waiver as a proposed solution to the problem. Reasons for a waiver may include a need to purchase costly supplies or equipment, such as buying musical instruments for an orchestra, or the need to contract with an arts partner due to an inability to hire qualified staff. Thus far, 2.4% of school districts have requested a waiver for 2024-25 spending, according to the CDE, down from 8.2% for 2023-24. 

    Can you pay for existing arts programs with the new money?

    No. Prop. 28 money must “supplement” and not “supplant” funding for arts education. For example, if you spent $1 million on arts education in the 2022-23 school year, you were expected to spend $1 million plus your Prop. 28 money in the 2023-24 school year (the first year Prop. 28 funds were available). 

    However, allegations of supplanting funds have arisen across the state as arts teachers watch new Prop. 28 funds being used to pay for existing programs. There are also disagreements on whether the litmus test on spending applies to districts as a whole or school by school. 

    What are the main issues in the Los Angeles Unified lawsuit?

    The core issue is paying for old programs with new money. Beutner, the author of the law, maintains that each individual school should offer more arts than before, while Los Angeles Unified officials have argued that spending is measured at the district level. Student plaintiffs and Beutner have filed a lawsuit against LAUSD, alleging misuse of funds. State education officials have avoided taking sides in the matter, but CDE auditing rules suggest that compliance is determined at the district level. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, has called for a state audit of LAUSD’s use of Prop. 28 funds. 

    What are the biggest challenges facing Prop. 28?

    The challenges of this rollout are myriad. Thorny issues include finding staff amid a teacher shortage, interpreting complicated rules and finding the time and space to hold extra classes. Schools without a Visual and Performing Arts coordinator often struggle with planning, experts say, and many have put off spending the money due to a lack of clarity on the spending rules and a lack of knowledge about the arts in general. While many school districts have reported they did not use the funds in the first year of Prop. 28 funding, according to some estimates, the window to tap into the funds is three years. Next year will be crunch time on assessing how comprehensively California schools are able to expand arts education. 

    What should parents know?

    Ask your principal how the Prop. 28 money is being spent and share your ideas on what artistic disciplines would best fit your community. Remember that arts education is a very broad landscape, from dance to digital arts. If there has been no increased access to arts education, that could be a red flag.

    Are adults shaped by childhood exposure to arts education?

    Early music training may impart a lifelong neuroplasticity that helps keep the brain sharp even as it ages. A 65-year-old musician has the neural activity of a 25-year-old non-musician, experts say. A 65-year-old who played music as a child but hasn’t touched an instrument in ages has neural responses faster than a peer who never played music.





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  • California’s Education Code is smothering innovation

    California’s Education Code is smothering innovation


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    In 2008, when I served as a deputy superintendent at the California Department of Education, two district superintendents approached me with a simple ask: permission to innovate.

    They had a plan to partner on student improvement and needed clarity — not funding or new mandates, just flexibility to act. 
     
    They submitted a waiver request, believing state law blocked their approach. Three months later, the department’s legal review found they didn’t need a waiver after all. It turned out they had the authority to do everything they wanted to do. 
     
    That sounds like a win, but it’s the opposite. If it takes a team of state experts three months to determine what’s allowed, how are district leaders and classroom teachers supposed to navigate this system in real time? 
     
    Since then, California’s Education Code has only grown. It now exceeds 3,000 pages. What was once rigid has become nearly impenetrable, and the weight of that complexity falls squarely on educators and students. When every decision is shaped by compliance, teachers have less space to use their professional judgment or respond to student needs. School leaders spend countless hours managing regulatory requirements instead of building responsive, student-centered programs. We need a system that trusts educators to lead.

    This isn’t just an administrative issue. It’s a design flaw. Years and years of well-meaning regulations that may have made sense at the time, many of which I played a role in creating, have created a patchwork of incoherence, too often equating oversight with accountability. As Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson write in their book “Abundance,” government “needs to justify itself not through the rules it follows but through the outcomes it delivers.” Jennifer Pahlka drives the point home in her “Recoding America”: We’ve become better at writing rules than achieving outcomes. 

    And still, outcomes lag. California has one of the most complex education codes in the country, but that complexity hasn’t translated into better results. Interestingly, the states with the largest education codes aren’t the ones with the strongest student outcomes. Take Massachusetts. It consistently outperforms California on national benchmarks, yet it operates without a formal education code, relying instead on a set of general laws and streamlined regulations.

    Meanwhile, California’s code still includes Cold War-era relics like a ban on teaching communism “with the intent to indoctrinate” (§51530) and mandates around toilet paper stock in restrooms (§35292.5) and requirements that school plans include strategies for providing shade (§35294.6). These aren’t metaphors — they’re actual statutes. In trying to regulate everything, we’ve built a system that too often enables nothing. 

    This isn’t just about outdated rules — it’s about outdated infrastructure and governance. Over the last several decades, as California took on a greater role in funding and overseeing schools, it never fully built the governance system needed to support that shift. Instead of redesigning, we layered. To provide support for districts, we created the California Department of Education (CDE), then county offices, and then the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE). Each was created to fill a gap the last one couldn’t. None were really designed to work together. And now, we’re stuck with a 1950s-era structure trying to serve 21st century needs.  

    There’s a way forward. In the 1990s, while I was working in the Clinton administration, Congress faced a similar problem: Everyone agreed the U.S. had too many outdated military bases, but no member of Congress would vote to close their own. The solution was the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) — an independent, time-limited body created by Congress that recommended a package of closures back to Congress for an up-or-down vote. It worked. BRAC cut 21% of domestic bases, streamlined operations and is widely regarded as a major success. 
     
    California should create an Education Code Review Commission modeled on the BRAC approach. A diverse group of educators, parents, students, and experts would review the full code, incorporate best practices from research and other states, and recommend a new governance structure and streamlined replacement. The Legislature would retain authority but vote on the whole package rather than amending it piece by piece. 

    This isn’t about trimming at the margins. It’s a reset. One that gives educators clarity, restores professional trust, and builds a framework for student success. Governance is about choices. In trying to solve every societal problem — many of them important — California’s Education Code has lost sight of its core purpose: helping schools teach and students learn. 
     
    This is a call for coherence — not to abandon standards and accountability. Teachers and students deserve a system that encourages bold, thoughtful leadership — and California should deliver. 

    •••

    Rick Miller is a partner with Capitol Impact, a consulting firm that partners with educational institutions, governments and other entities to achieve meaningful impact in the social sector. He served as a deputy state superintendent at the California Department of Education from 2002-2010 and as the press secretary at the U.S. Department of Education from 1993-1998. 

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

    The first sentence was updated to correct the year mentioned. It was 2008, not 2015.





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  • What to know about California’s English learners

    What to know about California’s English learners


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    About 1 in 3 students in California’s K-12 schools speak a language other than English at home and were not fluent in English when they first started school — 1,918,385 students — according to data from the 2024-25 school year.

    About half of these students (1,009,066) are current English learners. The rest (909,319) have learned enough English in the years since they started school to now be considered “fluent English proficient.”

    How does a student become designated an English learner? 

    When a family enrolls a student in school for the first time, they are asked to fill out a survey about the languages the child speaks. If the child speaks a language other than English — even if they also speak English — the school is required to test the child’s English proficiency and decide based on that test whether the child is an English learner. 

    If the test — the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, or ELPAC — shows the student to be proficient in reading, writing, speaking and listening in English, they are designated as “Initially Fluent English Proficient” and no longer have to take an English proficiency test again. If the test shows the student is not proficient in English, then they are designated as an English learner. Every spring after that, they must retake the English proficiency test until they are reclassified as “fluent English proficient,” based on this test and how they do on academic tests in English Language Arts, in addition to parents’ and teachers’ perspectives.

    How does the population of English learners change over time?

    As students advance through elementary and middle school, more of them are reclassified as fluent and English proficient each year, as shown by the illustration below. When students learn enough English to be reclassified as “fluent English proficient,” they are no longer considered English learners. At the same time, new students enroll for the first time in California public schools and are added to the English learner group every year in every grade.

    Where are these students from?

    The vast majority of English learners were born in the U.S. Among California K-12 students who said they spoke English “less than very well,” 72% were born in the U.S., according to an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey by the Migration Policy Institute. A higher proportion of English learners in grades 6-12 were born outside the country (45%) compared to grades K-5 (13%).

    How many are recent immigrants?

    In 2023-24, there were 189,634 recent immigrant students in California who were not born in the U.S. and had not been attending school in the U.S. for more than three full academic years, according to the California Department of Education.

    What languages do they speak?

    California TK-12 students speak more than 100 different languages other than English. The most common language spoken in California other than English is Spanish — 74.27% of current or former English learners in 2024-25 spoke Spanish, according to the California Department of Education.

    The second most common language spoken by current and former English learners in 2024-25 was Mandarin, spoken by 3.57% of these students. The third most common language was Vietnamese, spoken by 2.65%. After that were Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean and Philippine languages, in that order.

    How long does it take for students to learn English?

    Research shows it normally takes students between four and seven years to learn academic English proficiently.

    Only 7.6% of 2024-25 first graders who started school as English learners had been reclassified as “fluent English proficient” in the short time they had been in school. The percentage increases in every grade — among sixth graders who started school as English learners, for example, 45.4% had been reclassified; among eighth graders who started school as English learners, 62.3% had been reclassified; among 12th graders, 73.2% had been reclassified. It’s important to note that the total number of English learners also includes students who started school in later grades and have been enrolled for less time.

    Where do they go to school?

    There are English learners and former English learners in almost every school district in California, but the percentage varies widely. For example, 85.7% of students in Calexico Unified School District in Imperial County near the border with Mexico, started school as English learners, but only 4.3% of students in Dehesa School District in San Diego County were ever English learners.

    How can you tell how well a school is serving its English learners?

    The English Language Progress Indicator measures English learner progress by showing how many English learners progressed at least one level on the ELPAC, maintained the same level as the previous year, or decreased one or more levels. You can look up your school’s progress on the California School Dashboard.

    Another measure is the reclassification rate — the number and percentage of English learner students who reclassify each year. However, the California Department of Education has not published this rate since 2020-21.

    You can also measure a school district’s English learner progress by looking at the number of students who are “long-term English learners” and “at-risk of becoming long-term English learners.” Long-Term English Learners, or LTELs, are students in 6-12th grade who have been enrolled in a U.S. school for at least six years but have remained at the same English language proficiency level on the ELPAC for two or more consecutive years or regressed to a lower English language proficiency level. Students “at risk of becoming Long-Term English Learners” are in third-12th grade, have been enrolled in U.S. schools for four to five years and scored at the intermediate level or below on the ELPAC.

    Are academic test scores good measures of English learners’ performance?

    By definition, students who are designated as English learners are not yet proficient in academic English reading and writing, so it makes sense that they would not do well on academic tests in English. In fact, in many districts, students must do well on those tests, in addition to the English proficiency test, in order to be reclassified as “fluent English proficient.” When students do become proficient in English and are reclassified, they are no longer included in the English learner category. These students tend to do better on tests than students who speak only English at home.

    What do other measures like graduation rates tell us about English learners?

    Graduation rates tend to be low for English learners, as are other college and career preparation measures, such as how many A-G courses students have completed. (These courses are required for enrollment in the University of California and California State University systems.) However, it is important to keep in mind that the California Department of Education only publishes these measures for current English learners in high school, many of whom are recent immigrants. The department does not publish these measures for students who were once English learners and have since reclassified.





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  • White and male college leadership fails to reflect California’s racial, ethnic diversity

    White and male college leadership fails to reflect California’s racial, ethnic diversity


    Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, hosts a panel discussion with California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian, California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia, and University of California President Michael Drake.

    Credit: Ashley A. Smith / EdSource

    With some of the most racially and ethnically diverse student bodies in the country, California’s public community colleges and universities fail to mirror its students in teaching and leadership positions.

    White men dominate the leadership positions within the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems, even as two-thirds of undergraduates across the state identify as Latino, Black, Asian or Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Campaign for College Opportunity. 

    Notably, the three systems are each led by a person of color: a Black man at UC, an Afro-Latina at Cal State and an Indian-American woman at the community colleges, but the report highlights that those leading academic senates, tenured positions, departments and senior administrative positions are disproportionately white and male. 

    Seeing instructors, staff members, administrators and presidents from diverse backgrounds on college campuses has been shown to help all students perform better academically, the campaign’s research shows.

    “I have often found a disheartening lack of representation while going to school, particularly as a STEM major,” said Casey Chang, an environmental science major at Mission College in Santa Clara. “I’ve had a few professors who are Asian American men, but navigating higher education as a woman of color has been difficult. I have yet to take a class with a female Asian American professor, and it feels like my identity has been left out.”

    Chang spoke at an event Tuesday evening hosted by the campaign about the report.

    Autumn Alaniz-Wiggins, a student at Chico State University, said she was excited to study nutrition, access and food justice at the school. But when she started her classes, she found that instead of learning about the intersection of systemic racism and food swamps, her instructors focused on the benefits of kale and quinoa.

    “It became clear to me that the absence of diverse identities in faculty and leadership positions hindered us from equitable student access,” she said. And for a year, Alaniz-Wiggins dropped out of college. That is, until she met her first Black faculty member at Chico State.

    “He taught culturally relevant courses and even hired me as a research assistant where I became published through a study on nutritional knowledge and (low-income) students,” she said. “For the first time, I was getting the support that I needed from the start.”

    For the Campaign for College Opportunity, improvement is too slow.

    “California’s public colleges and universities as well as our governor and Legislature have prioritized and invested in efforts to increase the representation of faculty and college leaders, but the work is, at best, happening at a pace that is far too slow or at worst, only paying lip service to the values of diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity. Despite small increases in the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty and college leadership, “troubling gaps” remain, she added.

    The report found that while there have been improvements in gender and racial representations since the campaign’s first report in 2018, the state’s public universities still need to improve diversifying their leadership positions. For example, Latino, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian and American Indian professors are underrepresented among the tenured and tenure-track faculty groups across the community colleges, UC and CSU systems. 

    The UC system

    There are few Latino faculty members in the UC system, and only 8% of them are tenured or on the tenure track. Among Black faculty, only 3% are tenured or on the tenure track. 

    Only eight of 117 campus leaders in the UC system are Latino, compared with 25% of UC students who identify as Latino, 39% of all Californians and 49% of Californians aged 18 to 24.

    When it comes to women in leadership, only two of the nine undergraduate campuses are led by women, despite 54% of undergraduate UC students identifying as women.

    The Cal State system

    Only 10% of Latino faculty across the 23 CSU campuses are tenured or on the tenure track. 

    The report also found that the CSU’s academic senate is also overwhelmingly white. Seventy percent of the Academic Senate and 64% of the campus-wide academic senate members are white, despite white students comprising 21% of the undergraduate student body.

    California’s community colleges 

    Only 18% of Latino faculty across the state’s 116 community colleges are tenured or on the tenure track. Among Black faculty, only 4% are tenured or on the tenure track. 

    Asian and Native Hawaiian-Pacific Islander students comprise 14% of the state’s community college students, but only 8% of campus or district leaders are Asian or Native Hawaiian. 

    California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian said she’s optimistic that in five years students will see an increase in diverse leadership across the 116 campuses.

    “Tenure happens at the discipline level, not only at the college level,” she said. “As system leaders, we need to set the expectations and shift the mindset.”

    Unfortunately, too often during the hiring process, people give arguments about not diminishing standards in the pursuit of diversity and equity, but “those are all false arguments,” Christian said. “We need to focus on what the data shows like the (report).”

    UC President Drake said one way to improve the diversity of leadership positions is to encourage the diverse students within the three higher education systems to pursue careers in academia “through graduate school, to the junior faculty, to tenured faculty and to our leaders,” he said. “Those things are evolutionary and they take time. But all the energy’s moving in the right direction.”

    Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia, hired at the end of last year, said she’s already starting to hold the 23 campus presidents accountable when it comes to making diversity, equity and inclusion a priority.

    “We have to remember belonging because students do not understand our campuses,” she said. “What are you doing about your staff? And your senior team?”

    But Garcia said campuses should also address the unconscious bias that happens on search committees. The UC system, for example, uses equity advisers in its hiring searches to guarantee a diverse and equitable pool of candidates, Drake said.

    There have been some pockets of improvement in closing racial and gender disparities across the three systems. For example, Black Californians are represented in both tenured and non-tenured faculty positions in the community colleges at 6% for both groups, according to the report, which reflects the state’s Black population. 

    The share of tenured and tenure-track professors who are women has increased from 33% to 40% in the UC system and from 47% to 49% in the CSU. About half of CSU presidents are women and more than half of the CSU board of trustees identify as women. CSU presidents are also racially diverse, with 12 of 23 campuses led by Latino, Black, Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander leaders. 

    Women also lead 52 of the 116 community college campuses, and 49% of presidents in the two-year system come from diverse backgrounds.

    The campaign also recommended requiring all three public college systems to submit a bi-annual analysis of their leadership, faculty and academic senate diversity, and encouraged the Legislature to build a statewide fund that would help the colleges in recruitment, hiring and retention. The campaign also recommended that college presidents be willing to restart searches if their applicant pools don’t have an adequate number of competitive candidates from diverse backgrounds.





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  • Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative

    Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative


    Kindergarten teacher Jana Herrera at Booksin Elementary in San Jose discusses a story written by Casandra Lopez Monsivais.

    Liv Ames / EdSource

    Believing in the future of California’s most vulnerable students demands an urgent focus on early literacy. Nearly 178,000 economically disadvantaged third graders are not meeting state standards for English language arts, and the vast majority of those falling behind are disproportionately Black and Latino children. Early learning gaps all too often turn into lifelong opportunity gaps. If we as a state are failing to teach a significant number of students from low-income communities to read, then we are failing to be the progressive leaders we profess to be.

    According to the latest data from California’s standardized tests, only 3 in 10 third grade students from low-income communities are at grade level in English, compared with 6 in 10 of their higher-income peers. These educational inequities follow a child through to their adult life. Research shows that adults with limited literacy, which includes 28% of Californians, are more likely to be unemployed or earn an income that falls below the poverty level. According to the World Literacy Foundation, illiteracy can also lead to poor health, disenfranchisement and even crime. Among youth involved in the juvenile justice system, up to 85% are functionally illiterate.

    This is not just an education issue, it’s a social justice issue.

    There are a number of factors, both in and outside the classroom, that have contributed to this achievement gap. We are calling on the state Legislature to address those within their control, which include a combination of the public school system not prioritizing academic outcomes for low-income students enough, no requirements for school districts to teach reading based on evidence-backed practices, a lack of accountability to ensure statewide reading efforts are being implemented with fidelity, and an outdated state-approved instructional materials list.

    We now know so much more about how to effectively teach children to read than we have in the past. A large body of interdisciplinary research known as the science of reading informs us of the methods proven most effective in ensuring elementary students develop strong literacy skills. A focus on language development and building background knowledge along with direct and systematic teaching of phonics, word recognition, fluency, and other critical foundational skills benefits students, including English learners.

    In recent years, one-third of states have committed to implementing comprehensive literacy policies grounded in the science of reading with encouraging signs of success. Mississippi, one of the leaders in comprehensive research-based literacy reform, went from being ranked 49th in the country in 2013 for fourth grade reading to 21st in 2022, and has made steady progress in reading scores for Black and Latino students and students from low-income communities.

    The science of reading is not a panacea for all student reading challenges. But, based on historical research and positive implementation outcomes, it can dramatically improve the lives of California students, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

    Given the urgency of this educational crisis, we implore our elected leaders to pass a comprehensive literacy policy agenda based on the science of reading in 2024 so that all children will have the best chance to become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

    Anchor components of the agenda should include:

    1. All English language arts, English language development and reading instructional materials used in California public schools must adhere to methods supported by research.
    2. Investments in statewide educator training programs for both the science of reading and implementing evidence-based literacy instruction.
    3. Additional accountability measures and professional development that will help ensure newly certified teachers are prepared to effectively teach reading based on the principles and practices of the science of reading.

    Details of these policy recommendations may be found in the California Early Literacy Coalition’s early literacy policy brief.

    If there is one primary responsibility of public elementary schools, it is to teach children how to read so they are set up for future success. It is time that we prioritize unlocking reading potential and future opportunities for all of California’s children.

    •••

    Megan Potente is co-state director for Decoding Dyslexia CA, a grassroots movement dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for those with dyslexia and all struggling readers.

    Marshall Tuck is CEO of EdVoice, a nonprofit organization seeking to change state policy so that children from low-income communities receive high-quality educations.

    The opinions expressed in this piece represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • The solution to California’s literacy problem needs to go beyond third grade

    The solution to California’s literacy problem needs to go beyond third grade


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Third grade students in California’s lowest performing schools are doing better at reading, thanks to the Elementary Literacy Support Block Grant funding and a new focus on curriculum materials based on the science of reading.

    That funding focused on improving education for students primarily in the youngest classrooms (K-2), with a stated goal of having all students reading by third grade.

    While many California districts that received grants have been praised for providing student support such as tutoring or after-school programming, they are still focused on K-3. None of them have developed a comprehensive plan to address illiteracy among the older grades.

    The most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) stated that 68% of fourth graders lack key literacy skills. In California, the latest assessment of student performance shows fewer than half of eighth graders are proficient in English language arts. Many of these tweens and teens still have reading skills between a first and fourth grade level.

    With literacy instruction traditionally focused in elementary school, middle and high school teachers are unequipped to support more than half of the students in their class who don’t yet have the literacy skills to access grade level text. The core problem is twofold: Educators are not trained to teach structured literacy in secondary school, and they do not have the right content for their older students reading far below grade level.

    As one eighth grade teacher said, “I came here expecting to teach literature, but I soon realized I had to learn how to teach literacy first.”

    Today’s middle and high school curricula assume that students beyond the fourth grade no longer need to learn how to read — instead, they should be able to read to learn. The reality is that many cannot.

    Without the phonics and fluency skills, or background knowledge to make meaning from text, how can students analyze things like the author’s purpose and point of view, or use primary sources to write historical essays, or lab reports?

    Students who struggle with reading end up falling behind across all subjects — from social studies to science to math — contributing to increased dropout rates.

    The second problem is a deep lack of age-appropriate “learn-to-read” books for tweens and teens.

    We cannot support and empower adolescent readers when their only choices for practice are stories like Dr. Seuss’s “Hop on Pop.” While these books are on their reading level, they are misaligned entirely with their interests. The content is boring and juvenile, even embarrassing, to a sixth or 10th grader, and the characters are not representative of students’ range of diverse backgrounds and identities. As a result, these students become disengaged and often stop reading altogether. For effective literacy instruction, we need to provide students with engaging opportunities for meaningful practice.

    So how do we extend literacy instruction beyond the third grade, systematically? 

    1. Equip teachers in higher grades with the skills and knowledge to support literacy growth. With additional training on literacy instruction, and access to resources to empower student reading practice, we can equip today’s middle and high school ELA teachers with the tools they need to drive growth for students, beginning wherever they are.
    2. Rethink the choices students have for reading practice. Until just a few months ago, there were no suitable or effective “learn-to-read” books written for older students. As more age-appropriate content becomes available, we need to create a new shelf in the library filled with books that are culturally inclusive, intriguing and accessible for students at any intersection of age and reading level.

    We can transform literacy and access if we apply the science of reading in a relevant way to older students. They can catch up, but to help them do so, we must meet them where they are: reengaging reluctant readers with texts they can read and want to read — books that reflect their identities and experiences — and help them discover the joy of reading.

    Instead of holding students back in grade three, as some districts have proposed, let’s think about how to propel them forward, starting wherever they are.

    ●●●

    Louise Baigelman is a former literacy teacher and CEO of Storyshares, a literacy organization dedicated to inspiring a love of reading across the globe.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • California’s Youth Job Corps offers a second chance at career, higher education

    California’s Youth Job Corps offers a second chance at career, higher education


    Rubicon Landscape Group, which has a community beautification program in the city of Richmond, hires California Volunteers’ Youth Job Corps service members.

    Credit: Courtesy of Ebony Richardson/Rubicon Landscape Group

    One of Kaelyn Carter’s ongoing challenges these days is working early hours as a landscaper through the cold, often rainy San Francisco Bay Area weather — a world away from the stagnation he remembers feeling when he first arrived in California less than two years ago.

    Then, Carter had just been released from prison after three years of incarceration in Virginia, where he was born. He had made his way to California, which he heard might have more job opportunities.

    He’d tried working, but he’d run into more trouble and once again had a warrant out for his arrest. So he turned himself in.

    That decision led to significant changes in his life, he said, because his probation officer connected him with his current workplace, which is part job and part rehabilitation program.

    The job is with Rubicon Landscape Group, a landscaping company in the city of Richmond that has multiple branches, including a Reentry Success Center which offers a structured 18-week vocational training program where young adults under age 30 who’ve been impacted by the justice system learn about horticulture and landscaping.

    Working at Rubicon, Carter said, offered him a community and the means to provide for himself and rebuild his life.

    Kaelyn Carter, right, works is part of a community beautification program in the city of Richmond as a service member with California Volunteers’ Youth Job Corps.
    Credit: Courtesy of Ebony Richardson/Rubicon Landscape Group

    “It feels comfortable to be able to provide, to buy stuff that you need, (like) hygiene products. You don’t have to go and ask someone to do it for you. You can just go and get it yourself,” he said, and “being able to go to work every day and see a check or some kind of payment at the end of the week, it’s comfortable.”

    The program is part of a larger state effort led by California Volunteers, called the #CaliforniansForAll Youth Jobs Corps, that provides employment opportunities for Californians ages 16 to 30.

    Job placements for service members range from a few months to about a year, a timeline that’s set by each participating city or county depending on the region’s needs. The idea is to create a pathway to careers that may have been previously out of reach for them.

    Priority consideration is offered to youth who are in, or transitioning from, foster care, or have been justice system-involved, or in the mental health or substance abuse system. Participants must also be low-income, unemployed and not enrolled in school. They must also not have participated in an AmeriCorps program.

    Out of over 8,000 total service members to date, about 400 were either in foster care or transitioning out of it, and 702 have identified as justice-involved.

    The #CaliforniansForAll project includes other service programs, such as College Corps, which in its first year included 3,250 students from 46 California community colleges and state universities.

    While the Youth Job Corps prioritizes young people who may not be on a college track, it encourages them to pursue higher education.

    “That’s a goal of the program, and it’s why we focused on those populations,” said Josh Fryday, chief service officer of California Volunteers. “The idea here is creating an opportunity for our young people to serve their community, to make a difference, stabilize them, and then get them on the path to a successful career, which we hope higher education is part of for many of them.”

    Service members are paid at least the state hourly minimum wage, now $16, but their city or county of residence can increase their wages.

    The corps launched in 2022 with $185 million in state funding, with $78.1 million in ongoing funding approved in the 2023-24 state budget.

    Since then, about 8,000 young people have worked in nearly 30 cities and counties that applied to join the list of participating locations, which range from Nevada County to the city of South Gate in Los Angeles County to the city of San Bernardino and more in between.

    Each location either hires the service member directly or works with local community-based organizations that provide connections to careers in city government, climate efforts such as fire mitigation, community beautification by way of landscaping, and more.

    “We really wanted to provide a lot of flexibility for local communities to decide how they were going to engage young people, depending on the needs of the community and what was appropriate for that area,” said Fryday.

    For example, most of the service members in the Los Angeles County city of Maywood were high school seniors or in their early college years, and one was a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

    These participants were given the flexibility to choose placement in a career they were interested in pursuing. Their interests ranged from working at City Hall — which is where the college graduate was placed — to the local YMCA. Even some neighboring cities benefited from this flexibility: a service member worked at a technology center in the next-door city of Bell, which is not on the list of participating locations.

    Maywood, one of the most densely populated cities in the state, is home to a predominantly low-income and immigrant population that most often commutes to work in other regions of Los Angeles County. But at the end of their Youth Job Corps service time, many of the city’s service members were offered full-time jobs in their community.

    “The pay is helpful, the exposure they appreciate, but what I hear that, just to me, is so incredible and inspiring is when they say, ‘I just never thought I had something positive to contribute to my community. I never thought that I had something of value where I could give back, and I could lift up the community I love while also supporting my family at the same time,’” Fryday said. “I remember hearing that specifically in Maywood.”

    It’s a sentiment also shared by Carter in Richmond.

    “It might sound crazy, but Rubicon has been basically a safe haven for me because it helped me with dealing with … I want to say poverty, if that makes sense,” said Carter, now 29.
    His job also helps him address his depression. Rubicon’s wraparound services — such as mental health support, resume workshops — help with housing and transportation, and working with plants helps him feel more grounded, Carter said.

    All Youth Job Corps service members at Carter’s job with Rubicon are justice-impacted, which has given him a community of others with similar life experiences.

    “This cohort, they just really lean on each other a lot,” said Ebony Richardson, a reentry coach with Rubicon. “I feel like they look out for each other as a whole, and it shows in the work they are doing.”

    This community and support is part of what has kept Carter working at Rubicon, rather than returning to the life that led to his incarceration.

    “It helped me build structure as far as my character, as far as my work skills,” he said. “It’s really a rehabilitation program basically for those who need a second chance.”





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  • California’s science test will be added to state school dashboard

    California’s science test will be added to state school dashboard


    A high school girl mixes chemicals during a chemistry experiment.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    The State Board of Education is moving forward with plans to add the state’s science assessment to the California School Dashboard, making it a new piece of the statewide school accountability system.

    Students first took the online science test in 2019, before Covid forced an interruption of testing in 2020. Starting in 2025, performances by district, school and student groups will receive one of five dashboard colors, designating the lowest (red) to the highest performance (blue) — just as with math, English language arts and other achievement indicators. Each color reflects two factors: how well students performed in the latest year and how much the score improved or declined from the previous year.  

    Science teachers welcomed the move as a way of drawing more attention to science instruction. “Doing so will add visibility to ensure that districts invest in making sure that all California students receive the science ed they deserve,” Peter A’Hearn, a past president of the California Association of Science Educators, told the state board at a hearing March 6.

    “Our biggest frustration is that students have not been getting any or minimal instruction in elementary schools, especially in low-performing and low-socioeconomic schools,” A’Hearn said.

    As required by Congress, all students in grades five, eight and at least once in high school take the California Science Test or CAST. Designed with the assistance of California science teachers to align with the Next Generation Science Standards, the test includes multiple-choice questions, short-answer responses and a performance task requiring students to solve a problem by demonstrating scientific reasoning.

    For the 2022-23 year, only 30% of students overall scored at or above grade standard. Eleventh-grade students did best, with 31.7% meeting or exceeding standard. 

    The test measures knowledge in three domains: life sciences, focusing on structures and processes in living things, including heredity and biological evolution; physical sciences, focusing on matter and its interactions, motion, energy and waves; and Earth and space sciences, focusing on Earth’s place in the universe and the Earth’s systems.

    California replaced its science standards with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. NGSS was a national science initiative that stressed hands-on learning, broad scientific concepts and interdisciplinary relationships of various science domains. The state board adopted the state’s NGSS framework in 2016, and textbook and curriculum adoption followed.

    Districts’ implementation has been slow, with no funding specifically dedicated to teacher training and textbook purchases. The pandemic set back momentum, said Jessica Sawko, director of the California STEM Network, a project of the nonprofit advocacy organization Children Now.

    “NGSS pointed us to a higher-quality and richer approach, but it has not yielded statewide equitable access to science,” she said. “There have been shifts in instruction, but they have not been widespread and haven’t resolved a narrowing of access to science, particularly before fifth grade.” She said many districts don’t include goals for science education in their three-year planning document, the Local Control and Accountability Plan. Tracy Unified, which budgeted $768,000 this year for teacher training in NGSS and STEM studies, is an example of one that did (see page 28 of its LCAP).

    Although the science assessment will be part of the state dashboard, the State Board of Education has yet to decide how it will factor into the state and federal accountability systems — if at all. Congress does not require the science test to be included with math, English language arts and graduation rates. Folding the science test into the state system would entitle the lowest-performing districts and student groups to assistance in science instruction from their county office of education.

    Student growth measure, too

    Also at the March 6 meeting, the state board discussed a timetable for adopting a system to measure individual students’ growth on standardized test scores — an idea that has been discussed for nearly a decade. More than 40 states are using a student growth model for diagnosing test scores.

    The state’s current system, which the California School Dashboard reflects, compares the percentage of students who achieved at grade level in the current year with the previous year’s students’ level of achievement. The student growth model, a more refined measure, looks at all students’ individual gains and losses in scale points over time.

    A comparison of the two ways of measuring scores was a factor that led to the settlement last month of the Cayla J. v. the State of California lawsuit. Brought on behalf of students in Oakland and Los Angeles, one of its claims was that Black, Latino and low-income children’s test scores fell disproportionately behind other student groups during the pandemic. 

    The state, using the current method, said that all student groups’ scores fell about the same percentage from meeting standards. Harvard University education professor Andrew Ho’s analysis for the plaintiffs showed that “racial inequality increased in almost all subjects and grades. Economic inequality also increased.” The settlement calls for using scale scores under a student growth model to determine which groups of students will be eligible for state improvement money.

    The state must collect three years of data for a student growth model, which it won’t have until next year. Then the state board must decide whether to use it as a replacement or as a complement to the current system for the state accountability system, said Rob Manwaring, a senior adviser for Children Now.





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