During its final meeting of 2024, the California State Board of Education (SBE) pushed back updates to student assessment reporting, adopted revisions to the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) template, and heard ideas from student leaders throughout the state to improve their outcomes and well-being by increasing student input at the state and local levels, mentorship and more.
The board discussed proposed revisions to the reporting achievement level descriptors (ALDs) for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy and mathematics and the California Science Test (CAST), as well as revisions to the Student Score Reports (SSRs) for the aforementioned assessments and Initial English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).
To support better understanding of the state assessment scores, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium released a one-page brief, “Smarter Balanced Assessments: What Do the Scores Mean?” which clarified how each of the four achievement levels should be interpreted.
While revisions to the reporting ALDs were simply meant to align with the language used in the brief and were seen by most as a positive change, public comment and board discussion revealed many were uncomfortable with the lack of parental input in particular.
“I think this is a meaningful change that acknowledges the diverse ways students demonstrate knowledge and skill,” said board member Gabriela Orozco-Gonzalez. “This shift represents a step forward in creating a clear, asset-based framework that fosters a stronger, more transparent partnership between schools, families and communities. There are some concerns about ensuring families understand these changes and what they mean for our students. The involvement of families at each level is vital to the success of this initiative. Comprehensive engagement will help build that trust and understanding around the assessment levels and prevent potential misinterpretations.”
The revisions proposed would not impact the comparability of student assessment results from year to year as they do not change the level of rigor in the assessments, nor do they change the cut scores for each achievement level, several board members noted.
“I think if we could take some time to communicate more to the field and hear feedback, it will help to perhaps put away some of the concerns that this is a huge overhaul in how we’re looking at things,” explained Board Vice President Cynthia Glover Woods. “Cut scores are not changing, [the] rigor of the test is not changing, the expectation as it relates to the levels is not changing. It’s, in a sense, clarifying the language of what those levels mean so that teachers can be more responsive to it, as can families.”
The board directed California Department of Education staff to gather more feedback from the field for further discussion in January. Should the board adopt the changes at that time, they would be reflected on the 2024–25 score reports, but the release to local educational agencies would be delayed a few weeks. Some board members also floated the idea of adopting changes — should the board go that route — for the 2025–26 year.
A full description of each change that was proposed can be found in the agenda item.
LCAP template revisions adopted
The board adopted the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) template and instructions revisions proposed at its September meeting, which include reporting on all planned expenditures using Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant (LREBG) funds, identification of at least one metric to monitor the impact of each identified action or service, and more.
The template will include instructions requiring LEAs to identify whether they have unexpended LREBG funds and actions that are being supported with LREBG funds, as well as the ability to highlight general information and their strategic plan, vision and other relevant details in the Plan Summary section of the LCAP template.
These changes will be implemented in the 2025–26 LCAP year.
During public comment, Cindy Livers, a legislative analyst at Riverside County Office of Education, noted that the county is home to one of the smallest school districts in the state, with just 29 students, and the state’s seventh largest school district, with over 50,000 students. The adopted changes offer districts of any size the most flexibility, she said in support of the proposal.
California’s LCAP is a three-year plan that describes LEAs’ goals, actions, services and expenditures to support positive student outcomes that address state and local priorities. The document provides an opportunity for districts to share their stories of how, what and why programs and services are selected to meet the specific needs of their students and community.
Board President Linda Darling-Hammond said such template changes will hopefully make the LCAP a more useful document to LEAs than it has been in recent years. “It really is helpful to be thinking about the streamlining both to the extent that we can do it, and also opening up the template … so that districts can begin to see it again as something that guides [their work] strategically, … and that the public can understand,” she said.
In other State Board news:
- Three finalists for the position of 2025–26 SBE Student Member were approved: Divyansh Agrawal, of Dublin Unified School District’s Dublin High School in Alameda County; Vanessa Ejike, from ABC USD’s Gretchen Whitney High School in Los Angeles County; and Rishal Melvani from San Ramon Valley School District’s Monte Vista High School in Contra Costa County. Approved finalists will now be forwarded to the Governor for his consideration and appointment.
- Student delegates of the 2024 Student Advisory Board on Education brought to the State Board seven key issues researched and examined during their Nov. 11–13 conference, including promoting special and general education mentorship opportunities; improving campus safety preparedness by creating uniform safety information with best practices and other information for students and community that can be added to local safety plans; boosting supports for English learners through after-school and other support programming aimed at helping students reclassify as English proficient; increasing student input at the local level around school nutrition and meal offerings; promoting mentorship between upper-grade high school students and incoming students; encouraging LEAs to host career pathway exploration events for K-8 students at least twice per academic year; and adding one student representative to the California Workforce Pathways Joint Advisory Committee.
- Revisions to the California School Accounting Manual (CSAM) used by LEAs for accounting and financial reporting were approved for the first time since January 2019. The updates reflect changes including new legislative actions and governmental accounting pronouncements.
- Several appointments to the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools, Advisory Commission on Special Education, California Practitioners Advisory Group and the Instructional Quality Commission were approved.
- The development of a Portrait of a Graduate by the State Board was revisited, following discussions from its July and September meetings, with a focus on local efforts to develop and adopt district-level portraits — a comprehensive set of school- or district-level aspirations for what every learner will know and be able to do when they leave school. The November meeting included a presentation from Anne Porterfield, senior program associate at WestEd, covering findings from her 2023 brief that analyzed over 50 graduate profiles developed by LEAs and their communities across California.
- The board approved commencement of a 15-day public comment period for proposed amendments related to school nutrition programs.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for Jan. 15-16, 2025. View the full meeting calendar.
