The California State Board of Education’s (SBE) final meeting of 2025 on Nov. 5-6 included action taken on several items related to instructional materials and career technical education (CTE), as well as deep discussion on assessment and accountability items, community schools and student leader recommendations.
Instructional materials
The board moved forward in the process of adopting new English language arts/English language development (ELA/ELD) instructional materials for transitional kindergarten through grade 8 by approving guidance around the evaluation and adoption of TK–8 instructional materials that align with current evidence-based literacy instruction principles.
Developed by WestEd, the guidance builds upon the evaluation criteria in the state’s ELA/ELD Framework, addresses all California ELA/Literacy and ELD standards and framework components, incorporates media literacy, adds guidance around TK-specific materials, and includes the latest research on structured literacy and evidence-based instructional principles relevant to English learner students. This includes skills such as print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and fluency.
The final adoption of ELA/ELD instructional materials is scheduled to take place in November 2026.
Following public hearing, the SBE approved the adoption of 64 instructional materials programs recommended by the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) that align with the Mathematics Framework, which centers teaching around major conceptual ideas and follows best practices for equitable math instruction for all students.
The final program recommendations consist of 10 programs for grades K–5, four programs for grades K–6, nine programs for grades K–8, one program for grades 5–8, 14 programs for grades 6–8, 17 Algebra 1 programs, and nine Integrated Mathematics 1 programs.
Assessments and accountability
California Department of Education (CDE) staff provided an update on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), noting that 2024–25 scores released Oct. 9 showed improvement over last year.
For instance, African American students’ rate of proficiency in ELA rose from 30.34 percent in 2024 to 32.8 percent in 2025, Hispanic students went from 36.78 percent to 38.8 percent, and foster youth saw gains from 19.9 percent to 22.5 percent.
However, while the latest results did show modest gains and a narrowing of some achievement gaps, they also revealed massive performance differences between student groups, demonstrating that student performance has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and showed that millions of California students are failing to reach proficiency. During an Oct. 9 webinar, CSBA called for the State of California to adopt a coherent, state-level plan for how it will better support the work of local educational agencies to close achievement gaps.
The SBE followed with a study session on California’s Differentiated Assistance (DA) system focused on criteria for identifying LEAs for DA. Panel discussion included presentations from WestEd, the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and other stakeholders and an overview of California’s current system of support and DA, successes and challenges with this system and ideas for changes to improve the way California supports struggling LEAs.
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states must identify schools for comprehensive or targeted support and provide support to districts with a high concentration of identified schools. A memo submitted to the board by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) noted that “despite this longstanding mandate, many states have struggled to provide support that places persistently low-performing schools and districts and schools on a sustained trajectory of improvement … A core challenge for states is the tradeoff between scale and quality of supports: when states identify large numbers of districts and schools for support, capacity is stretched, and support efforts are spread too thin. As a result, the support provided to districts and schools may be less intensive, responsive, and timely than may be necessary to catalyze change.”
There are currently about 400 districts identified for DA in California.
Budget trailer bill language from the 2025–26 State Budget charged the State Board to take 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. The board is required to update the criteria for DA by July 15, 2026, to address this issue.
The study session that took place during the board’s Nov. 5 meeting included discussion about the WestEd report findings and an examination presented by AIR of how two states — Massachusetts and Michigan — have founds success in maximizing supports to address chronic low performance through systemic monitoring, LEA partnerships and more.
Acknowledging that California’s capacity to support school systems identified as requiring DA is stretched, SBE Board President Linda Darling-Hammond said that the study session was “an opportunity to take a holistic look at our accountability system, how we’re identifying LEAs for support, what kind of support they get, and to ensure the system is effectively serving those with the greatest needs, and that differentiated assistance is truly differentiated.
“I encourage us to think broadly about what the system could and should look like and not be constrained by the current structure,” she added.
Summarizing key points from the discussion, Darling-Hammond highlighted key challenges faced by LEAs that the SBE will aim to address through this process, including:
- How districts become eligible with issues related to identifying districts with student subgroups too small to include in calculations, identifying districts for the wrong reasons (e.g. experiencing high chronic absenteeism following a natural disaster such as a wildfire), and more.
- Dysfunctional incentives around whether or not to reclassify long-term English learners.
- Annual identification and too short a time frame to provide meaningful support, creating a churn of LEAs in and out of DA without substantial, sustainable change.
- Too much paperwork for LEAs, particularly smaller LEAs with less staff to dedicate to reporting requirements.
- Unpredictable funding that makes planning and implementing programs difficult.
“Our systems are not coordinated or coherent between and across those things,” Darling-Hammond concluded. “We are not at a point of identifying exactly what’s the right way for California, but I think we have a sense now of what the challenges are and how we might begin to think about what will work for our original goals.”
To that end, CSBA Legislative Advocate Carlos Machado noted during public comment that CSBA’s “Close the Achievement Gap” effort, which focuses on examining how state agencies should hold themselves accountable for supporting rather than directing the local efforts of LEAs, could act as a starting point as the SBE works to develop an accountability system that ensures fidelity and alignment across the entire system.
“We appreciate the careful review the board and CDE have undertaken to improve the effectiveness of the state’s system of support, including differentiated assistance,” Machado said. “The state rigorously monitors and evaluates the performance of students, schools and districts through accountability tools such as assessments and the Dashboard. However, there is no comparable telemetry and accountability system for evaluating the performance of state programs and supports designed to close the achievement gap. We look forward to collaborating with the board to develop and implement essential tools that evaluate the state’s role in supporting LEAs and meeting the educational needs of students.”
Learn more about DA and how it impacts LEAs in the upcoming fall issue of California Schools magazine.
In other State Board news:
- The board approved updates to the state’s Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards for the Arts, Media, and Entertainment Career; Business and Finance Career; and the Marketing, Sales, and Service Career clusters to ensure alignment with Advance CTE’s National Career Clusters Framework. Advance CTE is working with the U.S. departments of Labor and Education to support national CTE policy and provide technical assistance and resources. Perkins V reporting will require all states to align with the National Career Clusters Framework by 2027.
- The SBE approved proposed criteria and guidance for the selection or development of literacy professional development programs. CDE staff will now build program evaluation rubrics aligning to the criteria.
- The board approved fiscal year 2025–26 Career Technical Education Incentive Grant allocations.
- CDE staff provided updates on the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) and shared the Delano Union Elementary School District’s journey as a CCSPP grantee.
- Student delegates of the 2025 Student Advisory Board on Education brought to the State Board seven key issues researched and examined during their Nov. 3-5 conference, including improving transparency in district budgeting and goals by simplifying Local Control and Accountability Plan reporting to support student engagement in the process; providing inclusive opportunities for students in special education programs; and promoting responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students in part by incorporating AI literacy content into English classes from grades 4-8, among others.
The next State Board meeting is scheduled for Jan. 14-15, 2026. View the full meeting calendar.