When Gov. Gavin Newsom issues one of his periodic boasts about California’s superiority vis-a-vis other states — particularly those with conservative politics such as Texas and Florida — he conveniently omits aspects that are less than admirable. The exclusions include poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and utility and housing costs. One of California’s starkest letdowns is the consistent failure to help elementary and middle school students achieve higher test scores in basic skills.
Simply put, California’s education system is not only behind most other states, but even trails those Newsom and other Californians consider culturally backward. California schools have not yet recovered from the losses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This harsh reality is revealed in the latest testing by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. “The latest scores show mostly no progress,” EdSource, a nonprofit news outlet devoted to charting California’s education trends, reported. “Scores in fourth and eighth grade reading fell again, leaving California 9 points and the nation 8 points below 2017. Math was mixed — up in fourth grade, but not enough to catch 2019, with eighth grade taking another dip.”
EdSource found that average scores “mask widening disparities between the highest- and lowest-performing students. On fourth grade reading, student scores at the 90th achievement percentile fell 1 point between 2019 and 2024, and scores at the 75th percentile fell 3 points. However, scores for students in the 10th percentile fell 10 points, and for students in the 25th percentile, they fell 8 points.”
Stubbornly low levels of reading and math skills among elementary and middle school students are worrisome because they must be mastered to navigate high school and college classes or job training. The lapses not only affect students’ chances to become successful adults but also the state’s needs for an educated workforce.
Current data underscore that negative effect. While California has a huge homeless population and more than a million members of its labor force are jobless, employers are also finding it difficult to fill job vacancies with workers who are either skilled or can be trained.
California has been lagging behind other states for decades and has a chronic “achievement gap” between poor or English-learner students and those from more privileged circumstances. More than a decade ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature overhauled school finance to provide additional funds to schools with large numbers of students at risk of failure. While billions have been rerouted, the outcomes have improved only fractionally at best.
Money is certainly a factor in quality of instruction. The state has sharply boosted spending on schools in recent years. Newsom has fostered additional aid for kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, the state is providing universally free lunches, and has implemented early screening to detect reading deficiencies. Those are potentially positive steps, but money is not the only factor. EdSource notes that “some states whose scores exceeded California’s on fourth-grade reading, including Mississippi, Connecticut and Colorado, adopted comprehensive reading plans grounded in the science of reading.”
That’s the current term for phonics, which California’s education establishment has often resisted despite ample evidence it improves kids’ ability to read.
Dan Walters’ commentary is distributed by CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.
