California’s State Highlights

Summary of Grades

California scores above average in three of the four graded policy categories in Quality Counts.

In standards and accountability, the state’s standards for the four core content areas across all grade spans receive high marks from the American Federation of Teachers. But the state does not have social studies assessments aligned to state standards at the elementary school level.

The state’s strongest efforts in teacher quality are related to the professional support it provides new teachers and policies that hold schools and teacher-preparation institutions accountable for teacher quality. For example, California is one of only 15 states that require and finance mentoring for new teachers. The state also includes teacher-qualification data on its school report cards. But California does not use performance assessments to determine whether teachers are ready to move to a more advanced level of certification.

California scores points in school climate for having a class-sizereduction program. However, compared with other states, more of California’s students still attend larger schools. The state also shows room for improvement on some measures of parent involvement.

In resource equity, California scores well on the wealth-neutrality measure, indicating that per pupil funding levels are relatively similar in the state’s wealthier and poorer districts.

Note: Details may not sum to totals due to rounding.