Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.
Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr
California students made some progress toward regaining their pre-Covid levels of achievement with incremental increases in English language arts, math and science scores last school year, according to state data released Wednesday.
English language arts test scores overall increased slightly, from 46.7% of the state’s students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in 2023 to 47% in 2024. Math and science scores also edged up incrementally, with 30.7% of students in both subjects meeting or exceeding proficiency standards compared with 30.2% the year before.
Smarter Balanced tests are given to students in third through eighth grades and in 11th grade. They are part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, which also includes the English Language Proficiency Assessment.
Last school year was the third year students returned to school since the Covid pandemic pushed schools into distance learning and caused dramatic declines in test scores after years of progress. In 2019, more than half of California students, 51.7%, met or exceeded state standards in English language arts, and 37.1% met or exceeded state standards in math.
Linda Darling-Hammond, who is president of the State Board of Education and an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, said she found reason for encouragement in the scores. She said that the overall gains were consistent across grades and for Latino and Black students.
“California’s public schools are making encouraging gains in all of the key subject areas, and these gains are largest for our most vulnerable groups of students,” Darling-Hammond said in a statement. “Our governor and the Legislature have, in recent years, prioritized … accelerating learning and equity: community schools, expanded learning time, transitional kindergarten, and investments in literacy and math. Those efforts are paying dividends.”
Students from low-income households made larger gains in all three subjects on the tests than students overall — a change from initially after the pandemic. Low-income students’ scores in English language arts increased 1.5 percentage points over the previous year, with 36.8% meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in English. There was a similar increase in both math and science, with 20.7% meeting or exceeding standards — a 1.4 percentage point increase in each.
Darling-Hammond attributes the academic improvement to billions of dollars in federal and state assistance directed to students with the most needs. She acknowledged it’s not possible to tease out the impact of the state’s expanded after-school learning program relative to money spent on community schools or literacy coaches. But it’s apparent that the combined money is making a difference; for families experiencing evictions and illnesses in high-poverty neighborhoods, the pandemic isn’t over, she said.
“My heart goes out to those in the schools that deal daily with these issues,” Darling-Hammond said.
This narrowing of the performance gaps occurred even though the proportion of low-income students has grown significantly, from 58% to 65% of California’s students in the past seven years, Darling-Hammond said. And the numbers of homeless and foster children are up, too, she said.
But will the gains continue? California school districts have received record levels of one-time and ongoing funding since the start of the Covid pandemic. But the last $12.5 billion in federal pandemic relief — 20% of which was required to be spent on learning recovery — had to be spent by last month.
California schools are getting creative in order to continue to fund positions and other support once funded by Covid dollars, said Alex Traverso, spokesperson for the California State School Board. Some schools in San Diego County, for example, are funding counselors and social worker positions, once paid for withfederal Covid dollars, with the community schools dollars, he said.
“So I think as much as we can, we are trying to find strategies and techniques that can keep these programs moving forward and keep student achievement on the rise,” Traverso said.
States’ scores flat after dropping
An analysis of third-grade reading by David Scarlett Wakelyn, a partner with Upswing Labs, a nonprofit that works with school districts to improve reading instruction, found that California’s scores were similar to 29 other states he has examined: flat after falling sharply after the pandemic.
Third grade is a benchmark year for achieving fluency. In 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic, 48.5% of California students were proficient or advanced; in 2023-24, 42.8% were, a drop of 5.7 percentage points. In the past three years, reading scores rose less than 1%.
Other states that take the Smarter Balanced assessments followed the same pattern, including Oregon, Nevada and Delaware, whose scores were below California before the pandemic and were again in 2023-24. Washington State, where 55% of students were proficient in 2018-19, fell to 47% and has stayed there the past three years.
None of the nation’s 10 largest states have bounced back to where they were before the pandemic, Wakelyn found. But in four “bright spot” states — Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina — reading scores increased by 3 to 5 percentage points each of the past three years and are now ahead of where they were before the pandemic. The state leadership in Louisiana, he said, has long focused on adopting high-quality instructional materials and giving teachers deep professional learning opportunities in the new curricula, he said.
Smarter Balanced test results divide student scores into four achievement levels, but this year the names of the levels have changed. Instead of “not meeting standards,” “standards nearly met,” “standards met” or “standards exceeded,” they are now “advanced,” “proficient,” “foundational” or “inconsistent.”
English learners have mixed results
Fewer English learners tested as proficient on the summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) than last year. The percentage of English learners who tested as proficient went down from 16.5% in 2023 to 14.6% in 2024, while the percentage of English learners who had the most basic level of English increased from 20.33% to 23.93%.
Students classified as English learners have to take the summative ELPAC every year until they achieve proficiency. There are four levels of proficiency — “beginning to develop,” “somewhat developed,” “moderately developed,” and “well developed.”
Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, strategic adviser to the Californians Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for English learners, said it is difficult to know what these numbers mean, because they could be due to a change in the demographics of English learners. For example, the increase in the percentage of students with the most basic level of English could be due to an increase in students who recently arrived in the U.S., she said. In addition, there is no information about how many students are reclassified as proficient in English.
However, she said, “it would suggest that districts take a look at their English language development program and see if there is a need for intentional work to enhance it.”
Los Angeles, Compton see gains
The number of students in Los Angeles Unified who met or exceeded state proficiency standards in both English language arts and math increased by about 2% since 2023. Now, 43% of students meet or exceed standards in English language arts and 32.83% of students meet or exceed standards in math.
School board member Kelly Gonez said the district is committed to continuous improvement and to equity.
“Every day we’re showing up for our students, and it’s showing results,” Gonez said at a press conference in July, when the district announced preliminary scores. “I believe that we’re at the tipping point of really achieving the ambitious goals that we have for our students in our school district.”
Nearby Compton Unified also saw improved test scores last school year. Roughly 43% of students met or exceeded proficiency standards in English language arts this year, compared to about 40% the previous year. The number of students who met or exceeded math standards also went up from just over 31% to nearly 35% this year.
“Compton Unified School District has shown steady and remarkable progress in both math and English Language Arts, with our CAASPP scores far exceeding the state average for school districts with an unduplicated pupil count exceeding 90%,” Compton Unified School District Superintendent Darin Brawley said in a statement to EdSource.
Bay Area schools’ results vary
In the Bay Area some districts had big test score gains, while others stayed stagnant. Benicia Unified had a 4% gain in its overall English test score, and an 8% gain in math. San Francisco and Oakland test scores were mostly stagnant.
West Contra Costa Unified is still working to bring its scores back to pre-pandemic levels. Since the 2021-22 school year, slightly more West Contra Costa students have tested proficient or higher in math – from 21% to about 23% this year. The number of students who meet or exceed state proficiency standards in English language arts has stayed at about 32% since 2021.
To help improve reading scores, the district created a 13-member literacy taskforce about a year ago to create a literacy plan and improve literacy instruction in the district. District officials did not respond to requests for an update on the task force’s progress.
Big gains for Central Valley migrant students
Tulare Joint Union High School District in the Central Valley region had data points worth celebrating and data pointing to areas that need improvement, said Kevin Covert, assistant superintendent for curriculum, technology and assessment of the test results.
Based on the 2024 tests, 53.48% of the 1,300 11th graders who took the exam met or exceeded English proficiency standards, a 2.2% gain from the previous year. In math, 18.34% of students met or exceeded standards – a less than 1% improvement.
“Some people want to hang their hat on an overall test score,” Covert said. “We’re also looking at how our subgroups are doing.”
The percentage of Tulare Joint Union students with disabilities meeting or exceeding standards was 12.71% in English, a more than 5% increase, and 3.51% in math, more than a 2% improvement. Though scores have fluctuated for students with disabilities, the 5.48% gain in English is the largest percentage growth the group has made within the last decade. The 2024 scores also reached and surpassed the group’s highest level of proficiency, 10% in English and 3% in math in 2015.
Though migrant students are a small population of the district’s students, 63.63% met or exceeded English standards, representing a double-digit gain. Migrant students, in which 18.18% met or exceeded math standards, also showed a larger gain in math, 1.51%, than overall percentages.
“Our success on this test can only be as good, partly, as the instruction that’s going on in the classroom,” he said. “But educators must also know where students are academically, which is harder to track in Tulare Joint Union.”
