Source: California School Dashboard

See the results for your child’s school

By John Fensterwald for EdSource.org. Republished with permission

The California Department of Education this week released the annual California School Dashboard, the state’s multidimensional, multicolored look at student, school and district achievement.

The dashboard was designed to offer parents a quick look at student results, as well as to provide data for guiding school improvement and for holding districts accountable. Trying to serve these different purposes has created a data system that’s complex and comprehensive, often useful, but also daunting for first-time parent users.

The California Department of Education has translated the dashboard into multiple languages and produced dozens of flyers, videos, and an annually updated Dashboard Communications Toolkit. This is a good place to start.

Here are some answers and tips to help parents navigate the dashboard experience.

What’s the purpose of the state dashboard?

The dashboard gives an extensive look at every school, charter school and school district’s yearly performance as measured by ratings on eight state indicators. They are standardized test scores, of course — English Language Arts and math in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11, English learners’ progress, and, in 2026 for the first time, science.

Along with high school graduation rates, there are ratings for chronic absences, though only through grade 8, and suspension rates; both measures underscore the importance of engagement and school climate to student success.

There is also a measure of how well high schools prepare students for college and careers. It has expanded to include 14 measures. They include:

• Satisfying the A-G course requirements for admissions to UC and CSU campuses
• Passing multiple AP and International Baccalaureate courses
• Successfully completing two semesters of credit-bearing college or CTE courses
• Attaining a seal of biliteracy or a seal of biliteracy
• Completing a CTE pathway or pre-apprenticeship program
• Passing the Leadership/Military Science and Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test
• Demonstrating work-based learning.

What’s the point of using colors?

Rating performance by color serves a double purpose. There are five: blue signaling the highest achievement, green, yellow, orange, and red signaling the lowest performance. Each color reflects a blend of two factors, evenly weighted: the current year’s test score or rate, and the change from the preceding year to credit improvement or signal a decline deserving attention.

Screenshot of San Jose Unified’s dashboard from the 2026 California School DashboardScreenshot of San Jose Unified’s dashboard from the 2026 California School Dashboard

Screenshot of San Jose Unified’s dashboard from the 2026 California School Dashboard

A school’s goal is to achieve green or blue for any indicator, but a sharp change from the results of students the year before can elevate an otherwise yellow score to green or lower it to orange.

Clicking any indicator on a district or school’s overview page will lead to additional details.

For example, clicking the math score “odometer” for San Jose Unified reveals that students averaged 25.4 scale points below the threshold for proficiency or “meeting standard” in math in 2025-26 — a significant gap. Its students also gained 1.5 points from the year before. The combination is rated orange, two levels below green. The same template applies to other indicators.

Why is there no overall rating for a school’s or district’s performance?

Unlike other states’ dashboards, the State Board of Education chose not to give a summative or top number or rating for a school or district, in order not to overemphasize test scores, at the expense of other important measures. It also wanted to draw attention to achievement gaps among student groups, which would be hidden by focusing on an average score for all students.

How do student groups factor into the dashboard?

Tracking achievement gaps among 15 different student groups, including eight racial and ethnic groups, drives the dashboard. Every student group with a statistically valid number (usually a minimum of 30) receives a color rating on every indicator in every school and district.

While five of San Jose Unified’s student groups scored in the orange range, English learners, foster youth, long-term English learners and students with disabilities scored in the red band. White students achieved a green rating, and Asian students and students with two or more races were rated blue.

Screenshot of San Jose Unified 5×5 schools report for math scores

Every district’s dashboard includes grids — the 5×5 Placement Reports — that lay out the color rating for every school in the district on every indicator. Here’s the 2025 math 5×5 grid for San Jose’s Unified, for example (The 2026 grid will be released Dec. 15). It shows that of the district’s 40 schools on the grid, 12 rated orange, 10 were yellow, seven were green, six were blue and five were red.

As with all districts with student groups receiving a red rating on an indicator, San Jose Unified must then address low achievement in its Local Control and Accountability Plan, better known as the LCAP.  That’s the three-year improvement plan in which districts must list, among other requirements, an action item, including funding, for every student group with a red rating.

Can you compare districts’ ratings on the state dashboard?

No, but you can compare schools within each district.

Other organizations have included a comparison tool in modifying the state dashboard.

What are local indicators?

The dashboard includes priorities for which there are no statistically valid comparable statewide data or assessments, but nonetheless are vital for successful schools. These include family engagement, school climate and access to a broad course of study.

The State Board of Education requires that districts analyze each local priority and report back to the public annually. Examples are the results of local school climate surveys and the district’s actions to improve public engagement. For example, county offices of education must report on how well they are coordinating services for foster youths and expelled students.

How does dashboard information drive improvement?

Districts in which at least one student group is rated red on two or more priority areas, such as low reading scores and high chronic absenteeism, are designated eligible for “Differentiated Assistance.” They are encouraged to seek guidance from county offices of education or the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, a small state agency, on how to improve. Differentiated Assistance is voluntary and applies only to districts.

Since the dashboard’s first year, in 2017-18, more than three-quarters of districts, charter schools and county offices have qualified for differentiated assistance, with more than 80% of those identified two or more times.

In 2026, only 144 school districts will qualify for differentiated assistance, down from 418 last year. Recognizing a need to focus on fewer districts with more intensive, effective help, the State Board revised the criteria, and districts will receive assistance for three years, instead of one year.

Districts are selected based on poorly performing subgroups as well as districts’ overall scores receiving red ratings. Most of those qualified because of the low ratings for students with disabilities and long-term English learners, and in some charter schools, for low ratings of Hispanic students, according to Department of Education analysis.

John Fensterwald writes about education policy and its impact in California.

Photo: Julie Leopo/EdSource

By Mallika Seshadri and Vani Sanganeria for EdSource.org. Republished with permission

Top Takeaways

• Chronic absenteeism among students in 2025-26 decreased, but remained above pre-pandemic levels.
• Suspension rates dropped minimally.
• Graduation rates reached their highest in the past decade.

California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday.

But progress remained uneven. Chronic absenteeism is still higher than before the pandemic, suspension rates have fallen only minimally and substantial disparities persist among student groups.

“At a time when California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps, these results provide important evidence that our sustained investments are making a difference,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement.

The California Department of Education’s dashboard tracks student success across several measures, including chronic absenteeism, suspensions, English learner progress, graduation rates and college and career readiness.

This is the first year the dashboard has been released alongside the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment scores in English language arts, math and, now, science, giving educators and families a broader view of student outcomes.

“That’s a smart thing to do,” said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA. “I think that way we kind of get as holistic of a picture as we can from multiple standpoints.”

The 2025-26 data comes amid a significant, ongoing decline in California student enrollment. Since the 2016-17 academic year, the state has lost 496,975 students — an 8% enrollment decrease.

Over the past decade, the state has also seen significant changes in the student population, with more students identifying as Asian, two or more races and not reported. There has also been an increase in students with disabilities and in homeless youths.

Chronic absenteeism remains above prepandemic levels 

Chronic absenteeism continued to decline in California during the 2025-26 school year, falling 1.1% from the previous year to 18.3% among students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. The rate reached 30% during the pandemic-era spike in 2021-22.  Students who are chronically absent have missed at least 18 instructional days, or 10% or more of the school year.

“The fact that we’re seeing drops, but not huge drops, is not too different from what you’re seeing across the country,” said Hedy Chang, CEO and president of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works with school districts to reduce absenteeism.

The persistence of a high percentage of students chronically absent “points to the need for us to even deepen our work to reduce chronic absence to be even more strategic,” she added.

Downey Unified School District is among the districts that lowered its TK-8 chronic absenteeism rate from 19.2% last year to 18.4% in 2025-26.  Its TK-12  rate also declined, from 20.4% to 19.9%.

Roger Brossmer, Downey Unified’s superintendent, attributes the progress to new schedules tailored to students’ needs. The district plans to “double down,” on its efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, which remains higher than the state average, with a special focus on English learners.

Brossmer said Downey’s strong improvement in test scores – among the highest in the state – has reinforced his belief in the connection between student achievement and attendance.

“If they weren’t progressing, the number one thing they had in common was they weren’t coming to school,” Brossmer said. “And so we’ve shifted from a punitive model to more of a ‘we miss you, we need you here’ model.”

Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska native, African American and Hispanic or Latino students continued to experience chronic absenteeism at higher rates than the statewide average. The same was true for foster youths, homeless youths, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners.

Migrant students had a lower rate of chronic absenteeism than the state average, however.

Chang said that migrant student rates may be lower because students are leaving the state, or being detained, before they reach the 30-day attendance requirement to be counted toward chronic absenteeism data.

“It is possible that migrant youth are moving too far. You’d have to look at mobility issues at the same time,” Chang said.

Suspensions decrease minimally 

California’s suspension rate measures the number of students who were suspended for at least one day. It fell by 0.1 percentage points between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, to 2.8%.

That is part of a several-year trend of falling suspension rates since 2022-23, when the rate was 3.6%.

“It’s encouraging that suspensions are going down, but the racial disparities are still pretty noticeable and pretty significant,” Howard said.

African American students had the highest suspension rates among racial and ethnic groups, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students. Hispanic or Latino students were close to the statewide rate.

Foster youths had a much higher suspension rate of 13%, while homeless youths, students with disabilities, migrant youths, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners also exceeded the statewide rate.

Howard said the state should provide more comprehensive data that includes both in-school and out-of-school suspensions.

“I’ve seen in other states (cases) where their out-of-school suspension rates have gone down, which is what they lead with,” Howard said. “But then, when you do a deeper dive looking at the in-school suspension rates, they have gone up.”

Graduation rates: the highest in a decade 

California’s graduation rate reached 87.9% in 2025-26, the highest in a decade, according to the dashboard.

Graduation rates among Filipino, Asian and students identifying as two or more races exceeded the statewide average.  Migrant students also graduated at a higher rate than the state average.

It’s likely that graduation rates are even higher in the state. The California average was skewed downward by two schools — Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy.

College readiness also improved. Nearly 55% of graduates met the basic minimum requirements for the CSU and UC systems, a 0.9 percentage point increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, 17.1% earned the State Seal of Biliteracy, a special designation on a student’s diploma showing a high rate of proficiency in a second language. And 33.8% received the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, which shows mastery in at least six subject areas, marking a 0.8 and a 1.5 percentage point increase, respectively.

Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said graduation rates and college readiness are moving in the right direction, but more students need to meet standards in English language and math.

“A certain percentage of students are being pushed through without gaining the knowledge and skills that signify they’ve achieved a truly meaningful high school education and are prepared for their next step, whether that’s college or career,” Flint said.

Mallika Seshadri covers Los Angeles and LAUSD.

Vani Sanganeria covers student health and wellbeing as EdSource’s Local News Fellow, a partnership with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.