California student test scores remain lower than before the pandemic, but are trending upward, with the Compton and L.A. school districts among those with especially strong growth and results that have surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Against this backdrop of progress, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed legislation mandating that phonics must be emphasized when teaching the state’s youngest students how to read, a sweeping effort to elevate lagging skills and raise student achievement.
On the statewide tests, which were taken in the spring, 48.8% of students scored as “proficient” or “advanced” in English Language Arts, a gain of 1.8 percentage points from the spring of 2024, which built on smaller gains from the previous year. Still, the percentage scoring as advanced or proficient was 2.1 percentage points lower than in 2018-19, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trend was similar for math, with fewer students advanced or proficient overall.
In math, 37.3% of tested students scored as proficient or advanced, again an increase of 1.8 percentage points from 2024. And 2024 was .9% percentage points better than 2023. However, the percentage of proficient students was lower than pre-pandemic, by 2.4 percentage points.
A statement from the California Department of Education characterized the results as “modest increases at a higher rate than the year prior, suggesting growing momentum.”
State officials highlighted school systems where the results were more impressive, including in L.A. and Compton, the Roseville Joint Union High School District near Sacramento, the Pittsburg Unified School District inland from Oakland and Sanger Unified, east of Fresno.
“Some growth is modest, and some is profound,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, “but in all cases, the data reflects the impact of [state] investments and the hard work of educators to help students succeed. We aspire to achieve even greater student outcomes.”
Pandemic setbacks
For six years, educators in California and across the nation have looked to the 2018-19 scores — the last testing before the COVID-19 pandemic — as a benchmark. Closed campuses, economic hardship and disease held back student achievement starting in March of 2020. And academic recovery — as measured by test scores — has proved a stubbornly difficult hurdle across the nation, long after students left behind online learning and returned to in-person classes. Even record state and federal funding failed to fuel a quick turnaround.
California showed solid incremental gains from last year to this — and that’s what Newsom focused on, while also criticizing efforts by President Trump to penalize California schools for not following his policy directives.
“At a time when the federal administration is focused on cutting education funding in California, we’re doubling down on our efforts to support our schools, students and teachers,” Newsom said. “We’re working to provide students with the resources they need to succeed, and California’s increasing test scores show our efforts are paying off.”
Strong progress for Compton and L.A. Unified
Students are tested in English Language Arts and math in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11. In science, student are tested in grades 5 and 8, and once during high school. Four levels are used to categorizes scores: advanced, proficient, standard nearly met and standard not met.
The results varied widely among school districts. Compton Unified and Los Angeles Unified stood out for surpassing pre-pandemic scores while making strong annual gains. Both districts have large majorities of low-income families, one factor that historically has made it more difficult for students to achieve high scores.
Compton has now surpassed the state’s averages, with 51% of students proficient or better in English Language Arts; 41.1% in math.
In a statement from late July — when school districts had access only to their own scores — Compton Unified celebrated its progress.
“We have invested in what matters most: high-quality instruction, real-time data usage, targeted student support, and deep professional learning for teachers,” said Supt. Darin Brawley. “The results demonstrate the shared vision and mission of our governing board, the hard work of our students, educators, and families.”
“Our mission has consistently been to ensure that every student in Compton receives an education that prepares them for college, career, and future endeavors,” Brawley added. “These outcomes demonstrate that we are not only on the path to becoming the premier urban school district in the nation, but we are also establishing a benchmark for what is possible for all students.”
In L.A. Unified, the combined advanced or proficiency rate rose to 46.5% in English Language Arts and 36.8% in math. Both figures are slightly below the state average but with a much higher rate of improvement and the district’s best ever under the current testing system.
In the latest results L.A. Unified has higher scores than the state for each of these groups: white, Latino, Black and Asian students.
“For the first time, many of our student groups are actually outperforming the state’s — period,” said L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho in a Wednesday briefing. “There is no precedent for what I just said.”
All grades and all subgroups of students improved in L.A. Unified. All grades also improved statewide, but not as much as in L.A. Unified.
Despite the comparatively rapid test-score rise in L.A. and Compton, there is room for improvement. About half to two-thirds of students continue to measure below proficient in English Language Arts or math.
For example, in L.A. Unified, the percentage of Black students testing as proficient or better improved at least four percentage points in both English and math. Nonetheless, 3 in 4 Black students still are not achieving grade-level standards in math. The number is better but still low for reading, with 36% of Black students meeting or exceeding the state standards for their grade.
In the relatively new science tests, both Compton and L.A. were below state averages.
In another positive development for L.A., the achievement gap narrowed slightly between Asian and white students compared to Black and Latino students. Researchers have noted that these gaps widened across the nation during the pandemic.
Even so, a sizable gap remains. For example, in math, nearly 80% of Asian students and nearly 70% of white students were deemed proficient, compared to 31% of Latino students and 25% of Black students.
What did LAUSD do?
The testing rebound was helped by record levels of state and federal funding to cope with the harms of the pandemic.
Carvalho, who became superintendent in February 2022, said that the district used the one-time money effectively and, although it is gone, the system in place should continue to build on academic gains.
Key initiatives included giving more resources and applying more oversight to schools and groups of students who needed more help. Carvalho also cited better data and an ability to use it faster to tailor instruction.
Tutoring — before, during and after school, and in-person and online — was a central strategy. So was increasing classroom instructional time by promoting summer school and offering mini-academies during winter and spring break, he said. Intervention teachers were deployed to work with small groups of students, and coaches helped refine teaching.
State initiatives
Newsom focused on the benefit of state initiatives, including transitional kindergarten, universal free school meals and more funding for before and after school programs and literacy coaches. He also spotlighted the new reading bill, which he formally signed Thursday at a Los Angeles elementary school.
The new law, passed as Assembly Bill 1454, requires all school districts to adopt curricula aligned with what supporters call the “science of reading.”
The science of reading consists of five pillars: phonemic awareness (the sounds that letters make), phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
A 2022 study of 300 school districts in California found that fewer than 2% of districts were using curricula that proponents viewed as sufficiently strong in these practices.
The governor set aside $200 million in the 2025-26 budget to fund professional development in evidence-based literacy instruction for educators.
“This is a historic day for California’s students, educators, and families,” Marshall Tuck, chief executive of the advocacy group EdVoice, said in a statement. “Unanimous, across-the-aisle votes in both chambers tells us that big policy change is possible when we choose evidence over ideology and kids over politics.”
