About California School Trends
California schools should be the best in the country. Your children deserve it.
CA School Trends allows you to find schools near you and see their performance in reading and math. Are they trending upward or downward? Do you know why?
Your local school board is elected and they matter. Boards hire superintendents, superintendents hire principals, and values flow through those leadership decisions into classrooms.
If you don’t like the way things are going, you can vote for change. We make it easy to see the board associated with your district, and we will surface their stated values so you can make informed voting decisions.
Our Values
We believe in pragmatic approaches to learning that are rooted in evidence:
- Phonics programs
- Honors programs
- Magnet / Selective admission public schools
- Merit based achievement
- Access to advanced math
- Access to art and music classes
- Holding schools and administrators accountable to student success
These are things that kids in the 80s grew up with by default, but that have slowly eroded over time. We hope to surface school board candidates who share these values and will hire superintendents and school principals that agree.
How to Read Proficiency Data
Reading and math percentages are CAASPP proficiency rates: the share of tested students meeting or exceeding grade-level standards in a given year. That means if an elementary school gets a 60%, only 60% of students are performing at the expectations for that grade-level.
The Mississippi Miracle
Adjusting for poverty, Southern states are now beating many Northern and Western states. Read about the methodology at the Urban Institute.
“In 2023 just 53% of Birmingham’s third-graders read at grade level. Now 81% do, putting the city far ahead of others like it (see chart 2)” The Economist
"A Black Mississippi child is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in reading by fourth grade as a Black California child." The New York Times
“Red states have gone back to basics: legislators in state capitals have enacted new rules that require teaching reading via phonics and holding failing schools accountable” The Economist
There are a few things that appear to have helped dramatically improve performance:
- Tackling absenteeism
- Targeting reading mastery by end of 3rd grade
- Holding kids back who can’t meet expectations
- Holding schools accountable
We should learn from and implement the lessons of our Southern neighbors!
In the news
- CBS Bay Area: SFUSD vote to move Lowell High from merit admissions to lottery (2021)
- Palo Alto Online: PAUSD board approval for merged biology pathway (removing honors program) (2025)
- The Almanac Online: Sequoia Union removed honors classes in 2023 (2025)
- LA Times: LAUSD only had art teachers 2 days a week (2024)
- SF Standard: SFUSD eliminates honors math and 8th grade algebra, highest share of private school students (2025)
- LA Times: UC should go back to considering standardized tests in admissions (2025)
- NYTimes: Should California de-track math? (2021)
- SF Standard: California’s worst addiction: Tax increases that don’t fix what’s broken (2025)
- The Economist: Alabama offers three tricks to fix poor urban schools (2026)
- The New York Times: These Three Red States Are the Best Hope in Schooling (2026)
Data Sources
District and school performance data is sourced from official California state data systems and archived public releases.
- CAASPP / ELPAC research files (ETS portal)
- California Department of Education school directory files
- CDE staffing and student-teacher ratio data
Election and Board Data Sources
Board and election data comes from public election archives and county-certified results.