Following months of discussion, stakeholder meetings and study sessions, the California State Board of Education (SBE) adopted new performance criteria for determining differentiated assistance (DA) eligibility during its July 8 meeting.
The changes will allow the state to more effectively identify and prioritize local educational agencies with the greatest demonstrated need while improving coherence, reducing year-to-year instability in eligibility and ensuring support is better aligned with the time needed to actually make meaningful, sustained improvement, according to SBE President Linda Darling-Hammond.
“Differentiated assistance has been identifying in recent years a very large share of districts … which means that we’ve not been effectively distinguishing and prioritizing the districts with the greatest need. And this does create capacity constraints that get in the way of providing sufficient supports that could really move the needle for students,” she said. “We’ve also seen what was characterized as a whack-a-mole effect, with different combinations of student groups and indicators triggering eligibility from year to year, people going in and out and back in to DA, making it hard to sustain coherent, consistent interventions over time and with too little time to do the fundamental work that makes a long-term difference. We heard also about burdensome reporting requirements for districts and counties that distract attention from the real needs of students and schools.
“LEAs also faced strain from the sheer number of separate supports and processes they’re navigating, undermining the potential benefits of the system of support, and underscoring the need for greater alignment,” Darling-Hammond continued. “Our goal is a system that prioritizes the LEAs with the greatest need, that enables coherent, sustained improvement, ultimately addressing systemic challenges so that those LEAs no longer need DA. The idea is not just to be cycling through regularly, but to be finding the root causes and the fundamental improvements that allow for districts to improve the quality of education they’re providing.”
New differentiated assistance criteria
Under Assembly Bill 121, the State Board was charged with taking a more comprehensive look at the performance criteria for DA for LEAs, taking into consideration the recommendations from a 2022 state-funded WestEd evaluation of DA and the need to appropriately focus resources and supports where needs are the greatest. That report found that as a result of the pandemic, a substantial majority of districts would likely be identified for DA, and that this number would overwhelm the system in terms of staff capacity to provide support.
California Department of Education (CDE) staff presented the board with three final scenarios that would address this and other challenges with the current DA system. All three scenarios are designed to hold the state indicators constant so that county offices of education (COEs) and districts can design and implement coherent interventions and supports. The scenarios also use two of any California School Dashboard indicators in the lowest performing level, rather than requiring one to be academic.
The Dashboard assigns LEAs colors (red for lowest performing, orange, yellow, green, and blue for highest performing) across academic indicators including English language arts (ELA), math, English learner (EL) progress and college and career readiness, as well as non-academic indicators including chronic absenteeism, suspension and graduation rates.
Ultimately, the board adopted scenario B, under which LEAs would meet the criteria for DA if at least one student group has a red performance level in at least two of the same indicators across the three most recent Dashboards, which CDE staff said would result in significantly fewer eligible LEAs, as it will require the same student group(s) to demonstrate low performance.
Per CDE staff recommendations, the board also moved forward with a modification for using the red and orange performance levels for the English Learner Progress Indicator (ELPI) for the EL and long-term English learner (LTEL) student groups.
Following concerns expressed during public comment about identifying too few LEAs for support under scenario B, Darling-Hammond said, “several of the things are related to our major goals — effectively prioritizing the LEAs with the greatest demonstrated need, reducing the year-to-year instability, and ensuring that the supports are aligned with the time needed for making meaningful and sustained improvement. And we must remember that the number of districts eligible will grow with the addition of the College/Career Indicator, science, the growth model, and the ELPI when student groups like long-term English learners are added.”
The other two scenarios up for discussion included scenario A, which would have dictated that an LEA meets the criteria for DA if at least one student group has a red performance level in at least two of the same Indicators across the three most recent Dashboards. The student group would not have to be the same each year, but this scenario prioritized the same indicators with a red performance level. Scenario C would have seen LEAs meet the criteria if at least one student group had a red performance level in at least two of the same indicators across the two most recent Dashboards, which CDE staff noted would likely result in more LEAs being eligible for assistance.
As part of the agenda item, the board also voted to:
- Add a new student group — All Students — to the DA eligibility criteria, to the extent feasible by statute
- Adopt ELA and math growth and science as full state indicators within the Local Control Funding Formula Priority Area 4 – Student Achievement, starting with the 2026 Dashboard
- Incorporate those same data in DA eligibility beginning in 2029, with analysis of options for including ELA and math growth data in the 2027 and 2028 workplans, as additional years of data become available
- Evaluate the inclusion of those indicators into the Every Student Succeeds Act support eligibility criteria for consideration following the 2026 identification cycle
- Maintain the existing direct technical assistance (DTA) criteria, as applied pursuant to Education Code Section 52072 and 52072.5 and evaluate DTA criteria options in 2027 for implementation with the 2027 Dashboard to align DTA with the new DA framework as a clearly defined escalation for districts needing more intensive support
- Evaluate options for Dashboard Alternative School Status federal and state eligibility criteria for implementation for the next DA eligibility cycle, beginning in 2029
CSBA Legislative Advocate Carlos Machado noted during public comment that while the DA criteria revision is a constructive foundation, significant design and coherence issues remain.
“We ask for further clarity on the new ‘prioritized universal support’ level. Clear communication to the field is vital during this transition to help districts understand how these shifting support pathways fit together,” Machado said. “We also encourage the board and the state to explore all options for continued alignment and coherence through state-level accountability, a goal that CSBA is pursuing to help both the state and LEAs provide the highest level of support to all students, especially those with the greatest need.”
Members of the board noted that ensuring coherence would be a focus moving forward.
“I encourage us not to look at it as the conclusion of our work, but really just the beginning. We want to ensure that we bring alignment and coherence to the continuum of support that is necessary for our students so that, as they’re sitting in LEAs throughout our state, they’re receiving the instructional program that is going to best support them to thrive,” said SBE Vice President Cynthia Glover Woods.
The board discussion largely echoed CSBA’s calls for improved state support alignment laid out in the association’s SOS for Student Achievement: Close the State Accountability Gap campaign and related legislation, which aims to establish a comprehensive state-level support plan to help LEAs support student performance and close student achievement gaps.
In other SBE news:
- The board approved the template for the 2025–26 School Accountability Report Card.
- The board approved the adoption of proposed amendments to California Code of Regulations, Title 5, sections 3030 and 3031, which aims to align the Early Start eligibility criteria between regional centers and LEAs serving children from birth to three years with exceptional needs served under Part C of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Aligning the eligibility criteria ensures consistency in serving Early Start children across the state which will help set students up for success as they enter school and contribute to improved outcomes on special education placements, according to CDE staff.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 9-10. View the full meeting calendar.