What is CAASPP Smarter Balanced?
CAASPP (the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) is California's annual statewide test. Public-school students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 take the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in English Language Arts and Math each spring.
What does "% met or exceeded standard" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school whose scores were rated "Standard Met" or "Standard Exceeded" on the test. Those are the top two of four performance levels, and they signal the student is performing at grade level or above. A higher number is better.
What does 18.9% mean for English Language Arts at Nell Dawson Elementary?
It means about 18.9 percent of students tested at Nell Dawson Elementary performed at grade level or above on the CAASPP Smarter Balanced English Language Arts test in 2023-24. The statewide average for California that year was 47.1%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in California, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
California Department of Education, CAASPP Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment. School-level "All Students" subgroup. Scores suppressed for groups under 11 students.
How often is it updated?
CAASPP Smarter Balanced is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.
