2025 Assessment Data Release FAQs
Frequently asked questions related to the release of 2025 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) statewide results.What do the scores mean for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA) and Mathematics and the California Science Test (CAST)?
Student test results for overall performance are categorized into four achievement levels that describe the relative accuracy and complexity of students’ performance within their grade level.
Each of the four achievement levels may be interpreted as follows:
- Level 4: Students consistently demonstrate advanced grade-level knowledge and skills with deep understanding and a full range of complexity.
- Level 3: Students consistently demonstrate proficient grade-level knowledge and skills with a broad range of complexity.
- Level 2: Students demonstrate developing grade-level knowledge and skills with a limited range of complexity.
- Level 1: Students demonstrate minimal grade-level knowledge and skills.
Levels 2–4 represent grade-level performance at differing degrees of complexity and Level 1 represents minimal grade-level performance.
In addition to the overall achievement level and scale score, students also receive results for specific areas on each test, such as Reading and Listening for ELA, and Concepts and Procedures for mathematics. This degree of results reporting provides students, families, and educators with more information to better understand student achievement and progress while meeting the requirements of federal law.
How did the demographics of the students tested in the 2024–25 school year change from the prior year?
There continues to be an increase in the number of students with greatest needs. The proportion of students tested who are identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged increased from 63 percent in 2023 to 65 percent in 2024 and stayed at 65 percent in 2025. The number of students who are experiencing homelessness has also increased by 1 percent (3 percent in 2024 compared to 4 percent in 2025).
How well did students perform on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress overall?
English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics
When compared to the results from the previous administration, the percentage of students in California meeting or exceeding standard increased slightly for ELA (47.0 percent in 2023–24 to 48.8 percent in 2024–25) and mathematics (35.5 percent in 2023–24 to 37.3 percent in 2024–25). For Black or African American students, Hispanic or Latino students, foster youth, and students with family members in the armed forces, the increase in the proportion of students scoring at Level 3 or 4 outpaced the increase of students scoring at Level 3 or 4 for all students. Across all grades, average scale scores increased for mathematics, with an upward trend in post-pandemic years. For ELA, most grades also showed an increasing trend in the post-pandemic average scale scores, while some grades had minor fluctuations.
California Science Test
Student performance on the CAST increased by 1 to 2 scale score points on average, which is similar in trend to the ELA and mathematics improvements once the scale score ranges and spread of the scores for each test are considered. The percentage of students scoring at levels 3 or 4 also increased across grade levels, from 30.7 percent in 2023–24 to 32.7 percent in 2024–25. Similar to ELA and math, the following student groups have increased proportions of students scoring at levels 3 or 4: Black or African American students, Hispanic or Latino students, and students with armed forces family members. Other student groups (economically disadvantaged students, foster youth, and English learners) made slight improvements compared to last year.
California Spanish Assessment
The 2024–25 administration was the first operational year for the expanded California Spanish Assessment (CSA) that included Speaking (high school only) and Writing domains. In September 2025, the SBE approved the new threshold scores and score reporting levels. Overall, 36,772 students took the CSA in 2024–25 while 51,871 students took the assessment in 2023–24. CSA results for the 2024–25 are anticipated to be released in December 2025.
California Alternate Assessments for English, Mathematics, and Science
For the California Alternate Assessments (CAAs) for ELA and mathematics, the percentage of students who reached level 3 (the highest level) decreased by 1.5 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively—when compared to the 2023–24 administration. However, CAA for Science showed a slight increase by 0.3 percentage points in the proportion of students in level 3. For all three subjects, the mean scale scores fluctuated by about plus or minus 1 point scale score across grades.
How well did the student groups perform on the CAASPP?
Compared to last year, average scale scores on the ELA, mathematics, and science assessments continued to increase for each grade, and the percentages of California students scoring at levels 3 or 4 (currently termed meeting or exceeding standards) also increased. These results are particularly encouraging for Black or African American students and Hispanic or Latino students who made larger than state average improvements in all three subjects. The proportion of students scoring at levels 3 or 4 for economically disadvantaged students and English learners also showed small increases but lower than state average improvements in all three subjects, despite the gains from previous administrations. Refer to the Test Results for California’s Assessments website
for more detailed reports of the 2024–25 results aggregated by school, district, county, and state levels and disaggregated by student groups as well as all prior administration years where data is available.
Is California still using the adjusted blueprint for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics?
Yes. Prior to the beginning of the 2020–21 administration, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the use of the adjusted form blueprint for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for ELA and Mathematics. In September 2022, the SBE approved use of the adjusted blueprints for the 2022–23 administration and for subsequent administrations until the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium approves any changes to the adjusted form blueprints. The blueprints have remained unchanged since that time.
It is important to note that the adjusted form blueprint has comparable proportional allocation of content across the claims while also maintaining the same proportion of depth of knowledge. The adjusted blueprints are comparable to the full blueprints and represent assessments that are valid, reliable, of high technical quality, and consistent with nationally recognized and professional technical standards.
Can results from the adjusted blueprint be compared with results from years that did not use the adjusted blueprint?
The 2024–25 results are comparable to the 2023–24 and prior years' CAASPP results. The California Department of Education and its testing contractor, ETS, have performed validity and reliability studies comparing the full form blueprints to the adjusted form blueprints and have concluded that the results from the adjusted form blueprints are reliable and can be compared to those from the full form blueprints used in 2018–19 and earlier administrations.
How well did English learner students do on the Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California?
For the Summative ELPAC, the number of students tested decreased by 7.9 percent compared to the 2023–24 school year (1,031,448 and 950,197 respectively). Since the previous school year included Transitional Kindergarten (TK) students, a more direct comparison after removing them showed a decrease in participation of 3.7 percent compared to last year (986,494 and 950,197 respectively). Changes in the average scale scores on the Summative ELPAC were small and vary in direction, with notable improvement from grades nine, ten, and eleven due to the 3 to 5 point increase in the average scale scores. The percentage of students reaching Overall Performance Level 4 increased slightly by 0.4 percent (15.1 percent last year to 15.5 percent this year). For elementary and middle school, grades kindergarten through eight, the average score change from last year was mostly within a 1 point difference, but for grade nine through eleven, the average scale score change increased by 3 to 5 points, while grade twelve dropped by 3 points.
For ELPAC test and additional student group results, refer to the Test Results for California’s Assessments website
.
How well did English learner students with the most significant cognitive disabilities do on the Summative Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessments for California?
For the Summative Alternate ELPAC, the number of students tested decreased slightly to 16,297, compared to the 2023–24 school year total of 16,933 due to the non-participation of TK students. After removing the TK students in the 2023–24 school year, the resulting number of students increased slightly from 16,260 to 16,297 students. Overall, average scale scores on the Summative Alternate ELPAC decreased for all grades except for Kindergarten and grade three. The percentage of students reaching Fluent English Proficient (Level 3) also decreased from 23.4 percent in 2023–24 to 19.3 percent in 2024–25.
What can this data be used for?
Summative assessment results are only one indicator of student achievement. They should be used in conjunction with other indicators, such as report cards, teacher feedback, and classwork to provide a more complete picture of an individual student’s progress in school.
Throughout the year, educators also use diagnostic and formative assessments to gauge student progress toward mastering California’s challenging learning standards. These help teachers adjust instruction to make up for knowledge gaps and learning disparities between students.
In addition, parents and guardians receive individual student score reports so they can support learning outside of the classroom.
Aggregate assessment results should be used in conjunction with other data—such as high school graduation rates, student discipline data, attendance information and college readiness indicators—to get a fuller picture of how schools are helping students succeed. This data, broken down by student groups, is available on the California School Dashboard (with a 2025 release coming in November). This data is also used by schools working with their communities to develop Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs). LCAPs empower families, educators, community partners, and students to analyze data to drive important decisions about the best use of state resources.
Are the aggregations posted to the Test Results for California’s Assessments website the same as those used on the California School Dashboard?
The aggregations used on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website
differ from those used for the California School Dashboard
. The data on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website reflects where students tested while the data on the California School Dashboard reflects the groups of students for which each local educational agency held accountable. For more information surrounding the accountability calculations for the California School Dashboard, please visit the Dashboard Resources web page.