FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

What is the California School Dashboard?

The California School Dashboard (Dashboard) is an online tool that shows how local educational agencies and schools are performing on the state and local indicators included in California's school accountability system. The Dashboard is a key part of major shifts in California K-12 schools, changes that have raised the bar for student learning, transformed testing and placed the focus on equity for all students. The Dashboard provides information that schools can use to improve.

What information does the Dashboard include?

The Dashboard is made up of easy-to-use reports that show local educational agency or school performance on six state indicators and five local indicators (seven for county offices of education). Users can search to see the reports for any local educational agency or school.

What is a local educational agency?

Local educational agencies are defined in state law as school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools.

Does the Dashboard include information on all schools and local educational agencies?

All LEAs and traditional schools, including charter schools, will receive accountability results reported within their Dashboard.

The 2018 Dashboard displays reports for alternative schools that are approved under the "Dashboard Alternative Schools Status" (DASS). However, in order to fairly evaluate the performance and progress of DASS schools and the impact that they have on their students, modified methods are being developed to calculate select indicators. For the 2018 Dashboard, modified methods have been approved for the Graduation Rate Indicator.

Are charter schools included in the charter authorizing agency's (district) Dashboard?

Charter schools are treated as local educational agencies under the Local Control Funding Formula. Therefore, charter schools' data are not "rolled up" or included in the charter authorizing agency's (district) Dashboard.

How are Foster Youth and Homeless Student Groups reported for charter schools?

Charter Schools will be treated as schools (not local educational agencies) for reporting these two student groups. An n-size of 30 or more is required for Foster Youth and/or Homeless students to receive a performance level (or color).

Are charter schools that participate in DASS required to report on local indicators in the Dashboard?

Yes, all charters are required to report on the local indicators.

Why was the Dashboard created?

The Dashboard was created to give parents and the public a better idea of what is happening in our schools and districts and to identify districts and schools that need extra help. The Dashboard is a component of the Local Control Funding Formula law passed in 2013 that significantly changed how California provides funding to public schools and holds local educational agencies accountable for student performance.

The Local Control Funding Formula law required that the State Board of Education adopt a new accountability tool that reflects performance in different priority areas identified in the law. The Dashboard reports performance on the state and local indicators that the State Board of Education included in this new accountability tool.


Use of the Dashboard

How is the Dashboard intended to be used?

Parents/guardians, educators, other stakeholders and the public can use the Dashboard to see how local educational agencies and schools are performing under California's school accountability system.

The Dashboard provides a quick overview, with additional detail available, about overall performance and student group performance on multiple measures of student success. This will assist in identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas in need of improvement for local educational agencies and schools.

Will local educational agencies and schools receive a single, overall rating?

No. The Dashboard shows performance on multiple measures that contribute to a quality education for students. This provides a more complete picture of how schools are meeting the needs of the students they serve.

Why does the Dashboard include multiple measures?

The Dashboard is the result of hundreds of meetings with parents/caregivers, teachers, students and community members who provided feedback and suggestions on the school accountability system. A consistent piece of feedback was that reducing the multiple measures to a single number would leave out information that is important to many parents/caregivers and stakeholders.

Parents/caregivers said they are used to getting report cards showing how their child is doing. Just as the information about different subjects/courses helps them understand how their child is doing, the performance information on different measures will help them understand how the school or local educational agency is doing.

How will the performance data be used?

The Dashboard will help inform the local planning and stakeholder engagement process around Local Control and Accountability Plans.

The Dashboard also will help identify local educational agencies and schools in need of additional assistance under state and federal law. More information about the assistance and support is available in a November 2017 State Board of Education agenda item (DOC).

What changes were made to the Fall 2018 Dashboard?

Changes have been made for the following indicators:

College/Career indicator (CCI)

  • Change was reported for the first time on the Fall 2018 Dashboard. In addition, schools and local educational agencies received a performance level (color) for this indicator for the first time.

  • Two new measures have been added to the CCI:

    • State Seal of Biliteracy

    • Leadership/Military Science

  • The CCI was calculated using the 2017–18 four-year graduation cohort (Class of 2018). The students in this cohort took the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in spring 2018, when they were in grade eleven. Therefore, this year’s CCI will use the grade eleven results for the spring 2018 assessments.

    • For DASS schools, the CCI will be calculated using the one-year graduation rate (students enrolled in Grade 12 during the 2017–18 school year).

Academic Indicator

  • Grade 11 results on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy and mathematics are included in the Academic Indicator, beginning with the 2018 Dashboard

  • High schools and high school districts received a performance level (color) for the first time, based on new cut scores approved at the November 2018 SBE meeting

  • Unified school districts continued to have performance levels determined based on cut scores established using grade 3–8 results

  • Participation rates on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and the California Alternate Assessments was factored into the Academic Indicator for the first time.

    • The Distance from Standard (DFS) was reduced for districts, schools, and student groups that did not meet the participation requirement of 95 percent.

    • For more information on the DFS and incorporation of the participation rate, please the Dashboard Technical Guide at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/cm/documents/dashboardguide18.pdf.

English Learner Progress Indicator (ELPI)

Due to the transition to the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), the ELPI will not be reported in the 2018 Dashboard. However, the Dashboard will report the percentage of students in each ELPAC performance level.

Chronic Absenteeism

The 2018 Dashboard reported Status, Change, and performance levels (colors) for the first time.

What changes to the Dashboard can I expect in the coming years?

The State Board of Education (SBE) approved a process to review progress on implementing the accountability system annually. State and local indicators under consideration for revisions are proposed at the March SBE meeting. This provides an opportunity to make changes or include additional indicators or data elements in the future.