EdTrust-West Responds to Release of 2024 CAASPP Results  

Oakland, CA — Rachel Ruffalo, Senior Director of Strategic Advocacy of EdTrust-West, issued the following statement in response to the release of 2024 results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP):  

These state test results tell us nothing new, but they are a loud reminder that while incremental progress is better than a drop in proficiency, there is so much more to be done—and it needs to happen much faster. There may be commentary about ticks upward or downward in the percent of students meeting standards, but from the perspective of many Californian students and families, this isn’t about single-digit percentage point gains or losses—it’s about opportunities for their futures stalling out for yet another year.  

Equity gaps in these results mirror inadequacies in school funding because the two are tied. To raise these scores and eliminate equity gaps, we must fix the shortcomings of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that keep it from driving equity in the way it was intended, something we urge lawmakers to take up this legislative cycle. For more information, read our report More to Be Done: California’s Local Control Funding Formula After a Decade and watch the state assembly’s hearing on improving LCFF on Thursday, 10/17 at 10:00 am.  

Are we satisfied with a California that accepts progress by inches when students of color and multilingual learners have waited centuries? Or will we commit to delivering them the education they deserve?  

Among the key results of the 2024 CAASPP: 

• Schools supported only 30% of Black students to meet or exceed grade-level standards in English Language Arts (ELA) representing no substantive change from the prior year. In math, 18% of Black students were at or above grade level, representing a percentage point increase in the share of students demonstrating proficiency.  

• Only 37% of Latinx students were supported to meet or exceed standards in ELA, a single percentage point increase over the prior year’s rate. In math, roughly 24% of Latinx students were at or above grade level, representing an incremental increase in the proportion of students demonstrating proficiency.  

• Only a third of American Indian and Alaskan Native students (33%) were at or above grade level in ELA, and nearly 23% were at or above grade level in math, representing no substantive difference in the share of students being supported to reach proficiency.  

• Schools supported only 38% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students to meet or exceed standards in ELA, representing a slight decrease in the percentage of these students meeting proficiency compared to last year. In math, the percent of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students meeting or exceeding standards decreased marginally to 25%. 

• A total of 74% of Asian students met or exceeded standards in ELA (a half percentage point decrease compared to the prior year), and 70% did so in math, representing no substantive change from the prior year.  

• Nearly 20% of all students in California’s public schools are English Learners. The percent of English Learners at or above grade level in ELA declined slightly to just over 10% of EL students meeting proficiency.  The percentage of English Learners supported to meet or exceed grade-level standards in math stayed the same, hovering around 10%.  

• The percentage of long-term English learners (LTEL) at or above grade level in ELA decreased slightly to just under 5% of LTEL students meeting proficiency.  In both 2023-24 and the previous year, only 2% of LTELs were supported to meet or exceed grade-level math standards.  
• Low-income students experienced slight increases in both ELA and math. The percentage of low-income students meeting or exceeding grade-level ELA standards increased from 35% in 2022-23 to 37%. In math, low-income students at grade level increased from 23% to 25%.