The California State Board of Education’s (SBE) May 7 meeting agenda consisted largely of informational items related to topics including the California School Dashboard and the development and curation of high-quality instructional materials, as well as action on the revised Comprehensive State Literacy Plan.
The board continued discussion and provided feedback on incorporating technical and policy changes to student-level data processing and developing the resources necessary to support the annual release of the California School Dashboard by Nov. 15.
California Department of Education (CDE) staff presented items including a review of new and existing College/Career Indicator (CCI) measures; options for adoption of growth model performance categories; how the long-term English learners (LTEL) student group qualified for differentiated assistance on the 2024 Dashboard and suggested changes to the Suspension Rate Indicator for LTELs; options to incorporate the Science Indicator into Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) eligibility criteria; an overview of Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) along with a review of DASS application/renewal criteria and of Priority 1 teacher assignment data. (Additional information on each item is available in the agenda item.)
Growth
At its July meeting, the SBE will consider setting performance standards for student-level growth results, the total number of performance categories, the names and/or labels for the performance categories and incorporation of growth results into LCFF eligibility criteria. Options on how the board could incorporate growth into the Dashboard have been discussed in prior meetings.
Board President Linda Darling-Hammond, noting that all growth is positive, asked CDE staff to present some options at the next meeting that use the five categories for growth to maintain parity with the state’s other indicators as well as some options for the labels of the categories, “so that we can think about the way we want to be presenting this data to the districts and parents in the state.”
College/Career Indicator
To meet minimum admission requirements for the University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU), a student must complete 15 year-long high school courses with a letter grade of C or better in certain classes, commonly referred to as A-G coursework. In seeking board input on whether or not to create criteria for adding career measures to the CCI for future Dashboards, CDE staff said questions had been fielded about whether a one-hour CPR course could be submitted as a college credit course because it was being offered by college, and noted that some courses don’t appear to meet the threshold one would expect to show that a student is prepared for college or a career.
“When the board adopted the measure, it was with regard specifically to dual enrollment and opportunities for students to achieve robust course information that would logically fit under A-G,” according to the CDE.
However, noting the importance of ensuring the “career” aspect of the indicator isn’t an afterthought, Darling-Hammond said, “I don’t know that we want to be restricted to just A-G silos, because you could be taking a course, for example, in nutrition, on your way to becoming a nutritionist in a health professions academy. And as we’re thinking about career academies and pathways … we need to figure out a way to allow for titles that may be legitimate areas of study that might not be obvious to A-G while also being sure they’re substantive and so on.”
Long-term English learners
Darling-Hammond also highlighted a potential issue with the LTEL indicator, and illustrated how simply averaging student performance in this category would disadvantage local educational agencies that are successfully improving student outcomes and reclassifying English learner students as being English proficient.
Essentially, a student reclassified will no longer have their progress counted toward an LEA’s LTEL performance, but new LTEL students are included. So, hypothetically, Darling-Hammond illustrated, an LEA could keep from reclassifying students so that their average doesn’t suffer as additional LTELs with lower performance are added into their count, and they aren’t identified as being eligible for differentiated assistance.
Instead, she suggested the LTEL indicator work similarly to the English Learner Progress Indicator (ELPI).
“Basically, what the ELPI is doing is asking how many kids are making progress. In fact, we’ve asked the federal government at one point to use, for federal purposes, the ELPI plus reclassification as a way of understanding whether kids are making progress, which is what we’re asking districts to do, to make sure that every student is making progress,” Darling-Hammond noted. “As we make these decisions, what’s the right way to identify districts or schools for differentiated assistance here? And how do we make this a rational system that does not have counterproductive incentives built into it?”
Science Indicator
The board continued conversation on the possible inclusion of science into LCFF eligibility criteria, with CDE staff presenting three options to consider:
- Adding the Science Indicator as a state indicator for one of the eight state priority areas
- Adding the Science Indicator as a local indicator for one of the eight state priority areas
- Using the Science Indicator only for informational purposes that do not impact an LEA’s LCFF eligibility determination
Department staff will present simulations on the impacts of the first two options to overall LCFF eligibility determinations at the board’s July meeting. Moving forward, Board Vice President Cynthia Glover Woods said she wants to be sure the board is “looking at each of these areas in such a way that it provides LEAs with the information they need to support students and help them grow without having unintended consequences.”
State Literacy Plan
The board approved the final draft of the revised 2021 California Comprehensive State Literacy Plan (SLP) — a key deliverable to meet the requirements of the $38 million federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant awarded to the state in 2024. CDE staff noted that funds will also be used to expand and enhance existing statewide infrastructure, guidance and expertise to bring coherence to the system of literacy supports to improve student outcomes through Sept. 30, 2029.
The plan seeks to align and integrate state literacy initiatives, content standards and state guidance to support educators. The revised version includes updates from recent legislation and initiatives targeting literacy in California, references to updated guidance documents and more.
Board member Gabriela Orozco-Gonzalez applauded the focus on equity and early literacy, and the inclusion of the local literacy planning toolkit, among other factors outlined in the plan.
“As a second-grade classroom teacher, I know literacy is at the foundation of what makes students succeed,” Orozco-Gonzalez said. “The statewide literacy plan reflects the real challenges and strains we’re seeing in schools today.”
With the 2025 SLP approved, the CDE will initiate another competitive grant process to select new Literacy Lead Agencies — subgrantees tasked with focusing on a statewide literacy priority detailed in the SLP to support scaling and sustaining grant projects — to lead projects that focus on the 2025 statewide literacy priorities in the revised SLP.
In other State Board news:
- The board approved apportionment rates for the 2024–25 school year for both the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California tests (contingent on the availability of an appropriation for these purposes), as well as a minor technical revision to the Level 1 reporting achievement level descriptor for the California Science Test and Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts and math.
- A fourth cohort of California Community Schools Partnership Program implementation grant recipients was approved. Implementation grants are available to LEAs or consortia that have developed community school implementation plans with each of their school communities.
- CDE staff alongside and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) presented an update on the development and curation of high-quality instructional materials for use by LEAs and educators on the California Educators Together (CaET) platform to enhance teaching and learning statewide. The $15 million High Quality Online Instructional Materials Initiative called for state education leaders to contract with a county office of education to identify and curate a repository of high-quality open educational resources as part of the statewide system of support. According to the presentation, KCSOS’ efforts have attracted over 33,000 new users to CaET using innovative marketing strategies and partnerships, such as social media features and grass roots outreach campaigns. Having resource collections all in one space saves LEAs significant costs by eliminating redundant third-party platforms and providing free access to high-quality resources. The CaET platform has proven to be a critical resource for teachers looking to improve instruction, collaborate on curriculum development, and engage in meaningful professional learning, staff said.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for July 9-10, 2025. View the full meeting calendar.
