California School Dashboard

The California School Dashboard was first released in the Spring of 2017 and it gives parents and educators in-depth reports showing the performance of local schools and districts in a more complete picture of how schools are serving students.

"We think California hit a home run with the Dashboard," said District Superintendent Pat Kelley.  "It is a great tool for parents and school administrators to use to get a better picture of how schools are doing,"   

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson called it a historic milestone.  “The California School Dashboard is a resource unlike anything we’ve ever had before. I think of it as a high-tech report card for our schools. Just as our children receive report cards with multiple grades in multiple subject areas, the California School Dashboard provides us with many different measures of a school’s performance—where it’s strong, where it needs to improve, how it’s doing over time."

According to California Department of Education, the dashboard is a work in progress and it will be a more valuable tool three years from now when more data comes online, feedback is incorporated and improvements are made.

The Dashboard replaces the Academic Performance Index (API), which relied on test scores to produce a single number that offered a limited view of school performance.

The Dashboard is the part of a series of major shifts in public education in California that raised the bar for student learning, transformed testing and focuses on equity for all students.  It is part of the state’s new school accountability system based on 2013’s Local Control Funding Formula. It supports the educational goals that all school districts set in their annually updated Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs).

The Dashboard also reflects California’s commitment to transparency and continuous improvement. The new system places greater emphasis on changes in performance from year to year. The Dashboard highlights programs that are making positive change and makes it easier to identify areas where schools need assistance to improve performance. 

Performance Levels for State Indicators

Performance on state indicators for individual schools and districts will be represented in the Dashboard by easy-to-understand color-coded pie pieces. The five performance levels are: blue (highest), green, yellow, orange, and red (lowest). The levels reflect both current performance and changes in performance over time.  The colors show how well the school or subgroup performed overall (status) and how much it improved or worsened over a three-year period (change).  Learn more about how each color is assigned by visiting the California Accountability Model & School Dashboard webpage. 

State Indicators 

• Chronic Absenteeism (K-12)
• Suspension rate (K-12)
• English learner progress (K-12)
• Graduation rate (9-12)
• College/Career readiness* (9-12)
• English Language Arts (3-8)
• Mathematics (3-8) 

Local Indicators  

• Basic services (teachers, instructional materials, facilities)
• Implementation of state academic standards
• Parent engagement
• School climate   

Dashboard Reports show performance and growth

The Dashboard provides four types of reports with detailed performance information: 

• Equity Report – performance level of all students
• Status and Change Report – current performance and change over time
• Detailed Reports – year-by-year data for the state and local indicators
• Student Group Report – performance of various demographic groups