The EdTrust-West issued the following statement in response to the release of the 2018 CAASPP results:

The recently released results of our state’s college and career readiness aligned assessments, the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), make one thing very clear: the California state leaders we elect this November will need to take up educational justice quickly and explicitly. While we see some improvement in student achievement, particularly in the early grades, in most cases the improvement seen over the past two years combined is less than the initial improvement we saw from the first to the second year of results. Barely 1 out of 3 Black students are meeting standards in English Language Arts. Just over 1 out of 4 Latino students are meeting standards in math. And, alarmingly, the progress we see for English learner students in both Math and English Language Arts is less than a 1 percentage point increase from last year.

Embracing educational justice isn’t about placing blame, but it does mean not being satisfied with the current pace of improvement. It means tirelessly working to not just name bright spots, but ensure the lessons learned from those schools and districts reach every corner of the state with the urgency our students deserve. And it means working to close achievement gaps in this generation.

“California made the right move when it adopted rigorous math and reading standards aligned with college readiness.” said Carrie Hahnel, Interim Co-Executive Director of EdTrust-West. “But the slow pace with which these results are improving signals that we have serious work to do in supporting our educators and district leaders to help all students—not just some—reach and exceed those standards.”

“We should applaud progress – but continuing to celebrate results like these suggests we’ve become far too accustomed to the inequities in our education system” said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Interim Co-Executive Director of EdTrust-West.

Recently, EdTrust-West, in partnership with UnidosUS, conducted a poll of Black, Latino, and API parents. Overwhelmingly – and with these new CAASPP results, perhaps unsurprisingly – they told us that improving K-12 education should be the top priority for the next governor of California. We hope the next set of state leaders heeds this call to action. What we fund as a state is a choice. The resources and urgency we put into school improvement efforts are choices. These decisions make a powerful impact on students’ lives, their families, and the communities they live in. For the future of our students, and the future of our state, we urge the next set of state leaders: choose wisely.