Although the scores overall inched upward, they’re still far below pre-pandemic levels. Both English language arts and math scores are 4 percentage points below their 2018-19 levels, which were among the highest scores for California students since the state began administering the Smarter Balanced test in 2014-15.
Still, the results brought some hope.
“There’s reason to be optimistic,” said Lucrecia Santibanez, an education professor at UCLA. “Given the multitude of students of California, and the diversity, even small improvements are significant.”
She also lauded the improvements among Black, Latino and low-income students, many of whom suffered hardships during the pandemic. “Schools put a lot of work into helping those students, and it’s good to see things improving,” she said.