The California State Board of Education (SBE) took up a short but dense agenda during its March 5 meeting that saw action on items related to Student Score Reports (SSRs), the California School Dashboard Science Indicator and its potential use for accountability, and more.
Board President Linda Darling-Hammond noted that amid state and federal shifts in education policy, funding and more being announced at breakneck speed, the SBE is seeking to make focused changes that will positively impact students and local educational agencies moving forward.
“This is going to be an era of federal change, an era of state change, and we want to be very thoughtful and very purposeful of what we think will help our schools in California continue to improve,” she said.
In one of the most anticipated agenda items, the board approved proposed revisions to the SSRs with amendments for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), also known as Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments, for English language arts and mathematics, California Science Test (CAST), and Initial English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).
The SSR is used to describe and report student test results from the CAASPP, with a student’s scores falling within one of four achievement levels that provide context on how the student performed on the tests.
Below are the labels currently used in the reports, those that were recently considered by the SBE, and the version brought to the board. (Full descriptions are available here in the agenda item.)
| Level | Prior labels | Proposed in November | Newly proposed |
| 4 (Highest attainable scores) | Standard Exceeded | Advanced | Advanced |
| 3 | Standard Met | Proficient | Proficient |
| 2 | Standard Nearly Met | Foundational | Basic |
| 1 (Lowest scores) | Standard Not Met | Inconsistent | Below Basic |
Following the board’s decision at its November meeting to delay proposed revisions to the reporting achievement level descriptors (ALDs) for the CAASPP assessments and the CAST, California Department of Education (CDE) staff was asked to seek additional feedback from stakeholders, including teachers, parents and students.
This decision was made partially in response to concerns from the public, including CSBA, that the proposed changes to the SSRs could be too vague and confusing (learn more). During public comment, many noted that the changes may negatively impact how a student and their parents interpret the student’s results on state standardized tests by leading to more confusion rather than clarification.
In comments submitted to the board during its January meeting in which technical amendments to the SSRs were approved, CSBA Legislative Advocate Carlos Machado stressed the need to carefully evaluate whether the proposed changes to the SSR will enhance and promote a better understanding of student scores.
In February, the CDE released a memo summarizing the feedback and the proposed revisions to the reporting ALDs and labels as well as the proposed revisions for the 2025–26 SSRs for the CAASPP assessments and the California Science Test.
Despite the new labels and descriptors having been developed by focus groups that included K-12 students and parents, many board members expressed concern that the language used — particularly “Basic” and “Below Basic” — were not encouraging enough. SBE members expressed preference for words including “minimal,” “emerging,” or “developing” be used as labels or in ALDs instead — some of which were not brought to the focus groups as options for discussion.
Board member Gabriela Orozco-Gonzalez urged colleagues to stick to the language that was provided to the focus groups for input. “The focus groups liked these descriptors … I think that it’s important to use the language that was used in the focus groups because so much time was spent on that,” she said. “The parents and the students found that the language was appropriate and that it was real for them, so that they could then take an action forward.”
Board member Kim Pattillo Brownson noted the balancing act that the SBE was performing in trying to “encourage students, recognize the assets they have and also make sure that they and their parents have the information they need in order to support their continued learning.” She was among the members who expressed concern over the proposed ALDs and labels, but also cautioned against adopting alternate language using words that are “too rosy” or that create a “false sense of security” when, in reality, scoring at certain levels should imply that there is work to be done to improve.
Ultimately, the board, often unanimous in its decision-making, voted 7-4 to adopt the majority of the proposed SSR revisions. Amendments adopted are as follows:
Level two: Basic Developing – The student demonstrates basic grade-level knowledge and skills and shows an fundamental initial understanding of and ability to apply the knowledge and skills in English language arts/literacy needed for success in future coursework.
Level one: Below Basic Minimal – The student demonstrates below basic grade-level knowledge and skills and shows a minimal understanding of and ability to apply the knowledge and skills in English language arts/literacy needed for success in future coursework.
Science indicator, accountability
The board took further action to integrate science into the California School Dashboard, which is used to determine LEAs in need of additional assistance or intervention as well as schools in need of support under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
2024 marked the first year that a science indicator was included in the Dashboard for informational purposes. Now that the board has approved Science Indicator status cut points (i.e., very high, high, medium, low and very low); change cut points (i.e., declines significantly, declined, maintained, increased and increased significantly); and a color scheme for the five-by-five balanced color grid, the board could take additional action at its July meeting to include science in either state or federal accountability.
CDE staff will present an analysis of the impact of including the science indicator for support eligibility under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) at the May meeting. At the July meeting, the board will decide which LCFF Priority Area the science indicator belongs within and then decide whether or how the color received for the metric would contribute toward eligibility for differentiated assistance.
Cindy Kazanis, director of the CDE’s Analysis, Measurement, and Accountability Reporting division, noted that due to recent legislative action requiring that the Dashboard be published annually by Oct. 15 beginning in 2026, options to utilize growth data within the Dashboard indicators or for use in differentiated assistance eligibility are limited because of the time it takes to produce growth data upon receipt of the final testing results each September.
The CDE said that as a result of timing and legislative limitations, the best path forward would be to adopt performance standards and continue to publish growth data as additional information on the Dashboard with no accountability implications.
In response to board member Francisco Escobedo’s question to how other states seem able to turn around growth data so quickly for accountability purposes, Kazanis noted that California’s decision to release data in the current calendar year outpaces data releases in most states, which wait until the spring to release things like cohort data.
“Let me be clear, this is not an [educational testing service] issue, this is a department constraint and it’s around data quality,” she said. “We want to make sure what we release — and we have a more complex model than any other state — is accurate. These [data] are being used for things like charter school renewals, being used to talk about the performance of a school and student groups, and it is not just running a couple lines of code. This is a very complex process that starts with the department receiving an assessment file from the contractor and then us applying the metrics around accountability.”
In other State Board news:
- The board approved additional Career Technical Education Incentive Grant allocations for fiscal year 2024–25. Funding amounts for LEAs and the number of grant awards are available here.
- Following board approval, the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) will serve as the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) State Technical Assistance Center (S-TAC). As part of its new role, SCOE will be responsible for outreach and technical assistance to potential applicants as needed, as well as developing community school resources, sharing best practices and data collection.
- The board received the report, Advancing Excellence in Mathematics: Smarter Balanced Support of the Big Ideas in the California Mathematics Framework, which found that the “big ideas” in the California math framework are consistent with key components of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment for Mathematics.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for May 7-8, 2025. View the full meeting calendar.
