California made incremental gains in boosting student graduation rates, reducing chronic absenteeism and seeing more students ready for college or careers, according to newly released state data. But the state’s slow progress means the majority of California’s students may not reach proficiency in English Language Arts and math for many years.
“At the current pace of progress it will take many, many more decades and leave behind multiple generations of students,” said Melissa Valenzuela-Stookey, the director of P-16 research at EdTrust-West, an educational advocacy nonprofit.
The new data comes from the California Department of Education, which released its 2024-2025 school dashboard Tuesday. The dashboard is widely considered the best snapshot of California schools’ graduation and suspension rates, academic performance, attendance data and student progress.
According to the 2025 California School Dashboard, students’ graduation rate across the state increased a little less than 1 percentage point from last year, with 87.8% of the state’s students graduating high school. Individual student groups saw bigger improvements, with a 3.3 percentage point increase for long-term English learners, a 2.8 percentage point increase for foster youth and a 2.7 percentage point increase for students with disabilities.
Statewide, the percentage of all TK-8 students who were absent for at least 10% or more of the school year dropped again, down from 18.6% last year to 17.1% — more than 10 percentage points lower than the state’s all-time high of 30% in 2022. But this year’s data showed slower progress in decreasing chronic absenteeism among students, with only a one percentage point drop, compared to last year’s significant 5.7 percentage point drop from 2023.
According to the CDE data, the percentage of high school graduates statewide who were prepared for college and careers increased to 51.7%, up from 45.3% last year.
State leaders celebrated the improvements Tuesday, noting that for the first time since the dashboard was created in 2017, all student outcomes showed improvements.
“Seeing modest improvement on every dashboard indicator should encourage us to deepen our investments in every child’s progress,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in a statement Tuesday. “We can see that strategies like community schools and literacy coaches are making a positive impact … I am proud of our work to narrow persistent achievement gaps in student outcomes like graduation rate, and we must not rest until all students’ outcomes represent their brilliance and potential.”
Tuesday’s data follows state testing data released last month, which revealed modest gains for California students across English language arts, science and math. National testing data released in September, showed that California’s students’ post-pandemic learning recovery has been especially slow compared to students in other states, as California’s fourth- and eighth-grade students continue to trail their peers across the nation.
But Valenzuela-Stookey at EdTrust-West said the overall state data does not consider equity gaps for students of color, multilingual learners and low-income students, and rather than focusing on “nominal gains,” state leaders must prioritize accelerating investments and progress for those students.
In a statement Tuesday, EdTrust-West pointed out that while students’ chronic absenteeism across the state dropped, Black, Pacific Islander and Native American students continue to be more than twice as likely as white and Asian students to be chronically absent from school, with roughly a third of each student group chronically absent in 2024-25.
The nonprofit said despite recent improvements, significant equity gaps remain in graduation rates and college readiness. EdTrust-West said while the dashboard’s color rating system can make these disparities appear less severe, the reality is stark: only 35% of Native American graduates, 36% of Black graduates and 45% of Latinx graduates meet the state’s college readiness benchmark.
In the Bay Area, performance among school districts varied. San Jose Unified saw an increase in the percentage of graduates considered college and career ready, at 57.4% — up from 47.3% of students in 2024, and a decrease in the percentage of students considered chronically absent, with 20.3% of students compared to 23.2% of students last year. The district’s graduation rate saw little change at 92.2% compared to 92.4% last year. And the percentage of English language learners making progress towards proficiency increased to 44.3%, up from 37.5% last year.
Oakland Unified had no change in the percentage of students considered college and career ready compared to last year, with 43.4%. The district saw a decrease in the percentage of students considered chronically absent, with 27.9% of students compared to 31.2% of students last year. English language learners also saw little change in progress, with 40.3% of students making progress towards proficiency compared to 39.1% last year. But the district’s graduate rate tumbled, with 75.1% of the district’s students graduating high school, compared to 80.6% last year.
West Contra Costa Unified saw an increase in the percentage of students considered college and career ready, at 41% compared to 35% last year and a slight decrease in chronic absenteeism among students to 27%. The district’s graduation rate increased slightly to 85.3% but saw a sharp decline in English language learner progress to 33.8%, down from 39.8% last year.
San Jose Unified, Oakland Unified and West Contra Costa Unified did not respond to a request for comment from this news organization.
EdTrust-West said closing persistent equity gaps requires state leaders to build and sustain a high-quality teacher workforce that reflects the diversity of the state’s students and ensures that all students have access to high-quality curriculum and instruction, especially in math.
Valenzuela-Stookey said this year’s data further proves the need for adequate and equitable school funding, as schools in the Bay Area face financial crises over multimillion-dollar budget holes — including Oakland Unified, which must cut $100 million from its budget in order to stay afloat — and the federal government’s cuts to education leave schools facing further financial uncertainty.
“I think that what the results in the dashboard show is that we need increased investments and funding to close equity gaps, which is the complete diametrical opposite to what we’re seeing in terms of cuts and threatened cuts from the government,” she said. “We’re hoping that California state leaders continue to stay the course and put students and families first. Otherwise, I think those types of cuts will certainly threaten the slow progress that we’ve already seen, if not derail it entirely.”