California School Dashboard shows progress and challenges

California schools continued to make incremental gains in graduation rates, chronic absenteeism, academic achievement and college readiness, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday. 

But it’s not all good news. Despite gains, many schools are still struggling with high levels of chronic absenteeism, and while state test scores have improved, they are still below pre-pandemic levels.

“Seeing modest improvement on every Dashboard indicator should encourage us to deepen our investments in every child’s progress,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in a statement. “We can see that strategies like community schools and literacy coaches are making a positive impact for the whole child.”

The 2025 dashboard, released by the California Department of Education, uses student data to measure academic performance, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, English learner progress, and graduation and suspension rates. 

Performance is based on the current year’s results and on whether results improved from the prior year, according to the CDE.

Color-coded graphics indicate whether a school or district has improved or declined in each area. Blue indicates the best performance, followed by green, yellow, orange, and then red. Schools or county offices with a red rating are referred to their county offices of education for assistance. 

The number of California school districts performing low enough to be eligible for support from their county offices has declined for the third year in a row. This year, 418 districts qualified for help, compared with 436 last year.

This was the first time in the eight-year history of the dashboard that all statewide indicators are yellow or green, meaning fewer school districts are in need of improvement.

Not all students are succeeding

But a deeper look at individual school districts and schools shows that many are still struggling. The student groups in most need of support at traditional public schools and charter schools are students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English learners and homeless students, according to the CDE.

California School Boards Association CEO and Executive Director Vernon M. Billy said state leaders are celebrating minimal progress while there are still persistent gaps in academic achievement and other outcomes, depending on student family income, race and ZIP code. He is calling for a statewide plan to support schools and accelerate student performance.

“While incremental gains are welcome, they cannot obscure the basic facts — our academic performance is not improving fast enough to meet the needs of California or those of its 5.8 million students,” Billy said.

Chronic absenteeism persists

Improvements in chronic absenteeism, which the dashboard tracks from transitional kindergarten to eighth grade, seem to be slowing. Absenteeism rates last year dropped only 1%, to 19.4%, after two years of larger drops. In 2021-22, chronic absenteeism rates peaked at 30%. 

Students are considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the school year for either excused or unexcused reasons. 

The problem persists among some student groups, including foster and homeless students — at about 31% each. Rates for Pacific Islander, Black and Native American students hovered mostly around 30%.

Districts like Saratoga Union outside of San Jose decreased chronic absences across every student group after increases in previous school years. 

Constant communication among staff, data collection and analysis, and early engagement with families are at the center of the Santa Clara County district’s strategy that reduced chronic absenteeism to 5%, according to Moira Barker, assistant superintendent of educational services. The 1,600-student district’s four principals meet weekly to analyze chronic absence data from each school site and share strategies for reengaging students.

Last year, after chronic absences rose to 8%, Saratoga Union formed a committee that developed protocols to address absences before they became chronic. Their district-level data showed more cases of students refusing to attend school than in previous years, in part due to mental health challenges.

“One of the things they learned is actually getting involved as soon as possible — the longer a student refuses to come back, the more difficult it is to get them to reengage in school,” Barker said.

Torrance Unified’s slight increase of 0.6% to 8.6% in chronic absenteeism was enough to change its state dashboard indicator from green to orange.

This school year, the 22,000-student district in Southern California has started a new notification process to communicate directly with parents about their students’ attendance, according to Sara Baillie, director of communications for Torrance Unified. 

San Diego Unified had multiple gains

The San Diego Unified School District, the state’s second-largest school district, had gains in six dashboard categories, including chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, math, English Language Arts, career and college readiness, and graduation rates.

Its largest gains were in English Language Arts and math scores, which increased 5.3 and 4.5 points, respectively. The district also increased college and career readiness and graduation rates by 2%, while decreasing chronic absenteeism by 2.4% and suspension rates by .5%. The only dark spot on the district dashboard was a 3.3% decline in English learner progress.

Two years ago, leaders in the district of 95,175 students decided to focus on four goals, which encompassed all six categories where gains were made, said Superintendent Fabiola Bagula.

The district began monitoring student outcomes three times a year instead of just one, Bagula said. The information went to school principals, who shared it with teachers. 

“The data has to be actionable,” Bagula said. “So, if you receive this data, you are going to do something with it, like right away and change instruction.”

Graduation rates improving

Lynwood Unified was among the school districts that saw gains in graduation rates. The small district of 10,000 students in Los Angeles County has focused on improving graduation rates and other outcomes since the pandemic closed schools and sent students home to learn. 

The district went into the pandemic with about a 95% graduation rate, but came out somewhere in the 80s, said Maribel Martinez, assistant superintendent of educational services. 

“So, after that, we’ve been very intentional with the support,” she said.

Lynwood Unified increased graduation rates from 85% in 2023-24 to 89% last school year.

Three years ago, the district received $24.5 million in community school funding that has allowed it to hire more counselors to focus on getting students to graduation, including meeting one-on-one with students who are at risk of failing, and training parents to read a transcript and learn what credits are required to graduate, Martinez said. 

The district also offers multiple credit recovery opportunities as well as dual enrollment, so students can earn high school credit for college coursework.

Martinez attributes the gains to early interventions and an effort to build relationships between students and school staff.

“They have to feel welcome,” Martinez said. “They have to feel accepted. They have to feel like they’re part of something greater.”

Highest per-pupil state funding ever

The dashboard had a few changes this year, including officially adding science scores from standardized tests as an indicator of whether schools need support and adding Advanced Placement courses to the college/career indicator.

A press release from the California Department of Education attributes the gains made by school districts to state investments in K-12 education, including transitional kindergarten and accelerated learning. 

The 2024 California state budget set aside $133.8 billion for K–12 education, which was the highest per-pupil state funding ever for California students, according to the CDE. 

This year’s budget added $215 million to the Literacy Coaches and Reading Specialists Grant Program to help students who need literacy support.

“The more we can invest time, energy, and resources into our kids, the better their future can be,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement.