Statement from CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy on the 2025 California School Dashboard
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Nov. 13, 2025) – The 2025 California School Dashboard offers a familiar picture, minimal progress in some areas as wide, persistent gaps in academic achievement and other outcomes continue to separate California’s students by income, race and zip code. Predictably, the state celebrated underwhelming results instead of offering up a state-focused strategy to provide additional support to local schools. While incremental gains are welcome, they cannot obscure the basic facts — our academic performance is not improving fast enough to meet the needs of California or those of its 5.8 million students.
California needs a comprehensive, state-focused plan to accelerate overall student performance and close massive and persistent achievement gaps. Most students fail to meet grade-level standards on state assessments for English language arts and math, indicating a lack of proficiency in key subjects they will need to succeed in college, career or civic life. California’s Legislature, administration and state agencies must move beyond piecemeal, disparate initiatives and adopt a coherent state-level plan that defines how and what state agencies are going to do differently to support local educational agencies (LEAs). This plan needs to align with state budgets and policies so that all components work together to support — not dictate to — LEAs. Additionally, such a plan must include clear goals, transparent benchmarks and regular progress reports on state actions to ensure every decision from Sacramento supports local schools and helps them advance overall excellence while closing achievement gaps.
California cannot afford to mistake incremental growth for success. Real accountability must extend to the state itself, which bears responsibility for providing funding, creating the infrastructure framework, coherence and stability that allow local schools to thrive. Closing the achievement gap is not just a challenge for school districts and county offices of education — it is a state-level obligation.
Local school districts and county offices of education are working tirelessly to accelerate student achievement. Yet, they do so within a state system that remains fragmented, reactive and largely unaccountable for its own role in shaping outcomes and providing the necessary funding to make real progress. Year after year, Sacramento measures the performance of LEAs but not its own. This imbalance undermines progress and perpetuates the very inequities California claims to oppose. It’s time for a change and it’s time for a robust, coherent, and aligned state-level strategy to support LEAs in their efforts to close in closing achievement gaps.
Vernon M. Billy
CEO & Executive Director
California School Boards Association
CSBA is a nonprofit association representing nearly 1,000 PreK-12 school districts
and county offices of education throughout California.
www.csba.org