California Releases 2025-26 State Test Scores: 49.3% Proficient in English, 38.4% in Math, Slight Gains Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
The California Department of Education released statewide standardized test results for the 2025-26 school year on Thursday, October 15. The tests were taken in spring 2026 by students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, under the Smarter Balanced assessments in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) system.
Statewide, 49.3% of students met or exceeded the state standard in English, up about half a percentage point from the prior year, while 38.4% did so in math, up about 1.2 percentage points. In science, 36% of students reached proficiency, up 3.3 percentage points, the largest gain of the three subjects. Scores rose slightly again but remain below pre-pandemic levels: in 2018-19, 51.7% of California students met the English standard and 39.7% were proficient in math.
Gaps between student groups persist. In English, proficiency was 33.7% for Black students (up 0.9 points), 39.6% for Latino students (up 0.8 points), 73.5% for Asian students and 61.7% for white students. In math, proficiency was 21.5% for Black students (up 1.5 points, the largest gain among the four groups), about 27% for Latino students, 70.5% for Asian students and 51.4% for white students. EdSource reported that Black students were the only group to surpass pre-pandemic proficiency in both English and math. Third-grade English proficiency was essentially flat, moving from 44.2% to 44.1%.
State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond said in a statement that the results show continued progress but also work that remains, and that the state must ensure progress reaches every student and community. For the first time, the department released the scores together with the California School Dashboard, the state accountability system that also tracks graduation, college and career readiness, suspensions and chronic absenteeism. Source: California Department of Education release of 2025-26 test results, October 15, 2026; figures cross-checked in EdSource's CAASPP database.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 加州比格斯小学入口（巴特县）。Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons（资料图）。Entrance of Biggs Elementary School in Butte County, California. Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (file photo).
