The California State Board of Education’s (SBE) July 9 meeting was largely focused on wrapping up discussion around the 2025 Accountability Workplan, but recent budget-related legislation ensured that much of the board’s work will continue into the coming year.
Board President Linda Darling-Hammond noted that budget trailer bill language “charges the State Board to take a more comprehensive look at the performance criteria for differentiated assistance for local educational agencies, taking into consideration the recommendations from the state-funded WestEd evaluation of differentiated assistance and the need to appropriately focus our resources and supports where the demonstrated needs are the greatest.”
That report, she said, found that as a result of the pandemic, a substantial majority of districts would likely be identified for differentiated assistance (DA), and that this number would overwhelm the system in terms of staff capacity to provide support.
“And indeed, shortly after this report, we saw the spiking of the Chronic Absenteeism Indicator as a function of illness and climate events, as well as disengagement from school, which led to 60 percent of the state’s districts being identified for DA. And in some counties, this has included every single district,” Darling-Hammond continued. “So, this dilutes the state’s and the county’s ability to focus intently on the places that have the greatest needs.”
Accountability
Since the board’s January approval of the 2025 Accountability Workplan, California Department of Education (CDE) staff have been collaborating with board members and stakeholders on various aspects, including how to incorporate student growth data into the California School Dashboard, as well as whether or how to bring the Science Indicator to the Dashboard for accountability purposes.
Recaps of those discussions and actions are available on the CSBA blog.
CDE staff presented its final recommendations, which the board discussed and ultimately approved, on new and existing College/Career Indicator (CCI) measures; incorporation of growth data in the Dashboard; how the long-term English learners (LTEL) student group qualified for differentiated assistance on the 2024 Dashboard; options to incorporate the Science Indicator into Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) eligibility criteria; Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) application/renewal criteria and of Priority 1 teacher assignment data. (Additional information on each item is available in the agenda item.)
Decisions made and/or changes adopted by the board include:
- Maintain the Science Indicator for informational purposes on the Dashboard to allow for the full review of DA pursuant to the new budget trailer bill language proposed in the Governor’s May Revise.
- Implement the performance standards for growth (levels one through five) and labels (minimal, moderate, average, accelerated and exceptional) for the performance categories and continue to publish growth score data for informational purposes on the 2025 Dashboard, meaning the indicator will have no impact on LCFF or eligibility determinations for DA and intensive intervention. Growth can also be used for charter school renewal petitions.
- Remove wards of the court from the application-based DASS criteria and modify “students who are credit deficient” criteria to only include students who are enrolled during the regular school year for qualification in order to ensure the validity of the DASS high-risk criteria. The board also approved adoption of a phased-in DA eligibility criteria for the submission of data to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS).
- Modify existing CCI measures to remove the redundant Regional Occupational Center/Program participation from the State and Federal Job Programs measure of the CCI beginning with the 2025 Dashboard, as well as the “9227 – College Credit Course – Other” course code from the list of courses used to determine college course credits within the CCI beginning with the 2026 Dashboard to ensure data is more transparently labeled. SBE directed the CDE to continue collecting the State Seal of Civic Engagement data. The board also moved to modify the Advanced Placement (AP) measure to include completion of an AP course with a C- or better beginning with the 2025 Dashboard, as well as the Transition Classroom and Work-Based Learning Experiences measure to include students who are awarded a diploma.
- Approve modifications to Priority 1: Teachers Assignment Data, beginning with the 2025 Dashboard, to display the statewide information within Priority 1 as its own Dashboard card on the main page of each school and LEA Dashboard. The board also directed the CDE to seek additional feedback on modifications to the 2026 Accountability Workplan.
- Modify the LCFF eligibility criteria for LTELs under Priority 4 to only include red and orange on the English Learner Progress Indicator (ELPI), beginning with the 2025 Dashboard. The board also moved to consider modifications to the ELPI, including those suggested by SBE liaisons to modify the ELPI calculation for LTELs to include students who have reclassified to English proficient, as part of the 2026 Accountability Workplan, and shift any modifications to the Suspension Rate Indicator in response to the LTEL student group to the 2026 Accountability Workplan.
- Delay action related to participation-rate grace periods for the Academic Indicators this year and shift this issue to the 2026 Accountability Workplan for implementation on the 2026 Dashboard.
Going against the CDE recommendation to reduce the data reporting burden and lack of interest in several CCI measures, the board opted to have the department continue collecting data from LEAs related to internships, student-led enterprise, simulated work-based learning and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
Instructional materials
The board took action on several aspects related to the 2026 English Language Arts/English Language Development (ELA/ELD) instructional materials follow-up adoption, including approving of the schedule of significant events, reviewer application and adoption notice, and reviewing the 2015 SBE-approved evaluation criteria map and standards maps.
Since the adoption of the ELA/ELD Framework — which includes standards to guide instructional approaches for the teaching of reading, writing and communication in English — the state has developed additional literacy guidance to support its implementation. This includes the 2017 English Learner Roadmap that provides policy guidance, the 2020 State Literacy Plan (updated in 2025) that includes age- and grade-band priorities, and the 2025 Literacy Roadmap that includes practical framework implementation guidance by grade level.
The ELA/ELD Framework also provided publishers and content developers with specific criteria for creating instructional materials, which framed the state-level evaluation of ELA/ELD instructional materials and the subsequent adoption of recommended programs by the SBE in 2015. While the framework still reflects sound evidence-based practices, CDE staff also noted the current list of adopted instructional materials includes only those materials that were developed for the 2015 adoption.
In other State Board news:
- The board approved the template for the 2024–25 School Accountability Report Card. (Item 11, consent)
- The board approved the fourth cohort of California Community Schools Partnership Program implementation grantees. (Item 13)
- CDE staff provided updates on program activities related to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). Presentations largely focused on two components of the concept proposed in the California Science Test Innovations Concept Paper: The performance tasks embedded in learning science bank and the mini-performance tasks.
- The board received an update on proposed goals and priorities to be included in the procurement for the next assessment contractor with the capacity and expertise to develop, administer, score, analyze and report assessments and implement a technology solution for the CAASPP and ELPAC.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 10-11, 2025. View the full meeting calendar.