New data show academic improvement rates have plateaued for Stockton Unified students, even as the district’s graduation rate now exceeds the state rate.
State academic data for English language arts and mathematics scores have remained steady, though way below state standards.
However, graduation rates in the Stockton Unified School District have increased by nearly 4%, with the district’s nearly 89% graduation rate even surpassing the state’s rate of 87.8%.
The district’s graduation rate has generally seen a steady increase in graduation rates since 2018, improving overall by more than 10% in the last seven years.
Jason Murphy, Stockton Unified’s director of research and accountability, said recently that school performance is measured by the state in a unique way.
“The intent of the framers of the dashboard wanted to create a system where school districts were able to report on how students were doing overall, how subgroups of students were doing, as well as how they were progressing,” Murphy told the SUSD School Board at its meeting last week.
Murphy presented an update on the 2025 California Schools Dashboard..
The California Schools Dashboard is the state’s accountability system tied to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). It measures how districts like SUSD are using funds to improve student outcomes, learning conditions and engagement.
The system uses several indicators to measure success, including ELA, mathematics, science, English learner progress, graduation rate, college and career readiness and suspension rate. A color-coded system from red (lowest) to blue (highest) based on current performance shows year-over-year change.
Murphy acknowledged that while the district improvement rates have remained in the same color tier, or “maintained,” by state standards, sub-groups in the district have shown significant improvement.
“I want to emphasize that in order to do that, there has to be a very large growth to move from one color to the next,” Murphy said. “So the fact that there was improvement for 10 subgroups, and of those 10 groups, six improved a different color to a different color band, is a significant improvement.”
He noted that the district’s overall ELA status is orange, which is the second-lowest tier at 58.8 points below state standard. Overall, the district improved by 2.4 points from the prior year, though the state considers the difference a maintaining of the status quo rather than an increase.
State data shows that the district has improved by almost 5 points since 2022.
The state measures a district’s ELA performance in grades third through eighth and for high school juniors, including breaking down measurements by student subgroups
Several disadvantaged and minority student groups are showing scores significantly further below the state standard in ELA, including homeless students at 123 points below standard, long-term English learners at 120.2 points below and disabled students at 116.6 points below.
“I do want to say that with this, this is our first (Key Performance Indicator) report,” Sofia Colón said, SUSD Board President. “It starts off with this, with this overall information, and then we get, we take each KPI and we can drill down to it.”
In mathematics, SUSD remains in the red at 96.6 points below state standard, also generally maintaining last year’s scores . The state shows an overall improvement in SUSD math scores by more than 7 points in the last three years.
Murphy said mathematics is an issue across the nation, with the state rate being 42.4 points below standard.
“So even though we have room to grow to catch up with the state, the state itself also has room to catch up,” Murphy said.” Improving mathematics performance is not just a Stockton issue or an opportunity. It’s a state of California and, frankly, the United States, opportunity.”
But with that said, we still have opportunities that we can identify for improvement,” he added.
Other data measured by the state show California technical pathways and suspension, and chronic absenteeism have remained in the yellow and orange. The college and career readiness indicator, a composite of A-G requirements, Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways, and internships, is in the yellow with 30.3% of the district showing readiness.
Science is at 42.4 points below standard, which is closer to the state’s rate of 52.6 below standard. Foster youth, homeless and American Indian student groups showed state-defined increases. However long-term English learners, disabled students, Pacific Islanders and Hispanic students remain in red or declined slightly.
Murphy explained the English Language pProgress Indicator is a data point that looks at how district English learners are doing toward becoming proficient in English. The district’s current status is 44.7% of students, up 2.5%.
“So in terms of next steps in moving forward to support students, and continuous improvement on the California schools dashboard state indicators,” Murphy said, “The district will continue to focus on adult behaviors, soliciting feedback from the community and student voice, as expressed by superintendents, town halls and focus groups, specialty fairs, continuing to address education through professional development and professional learning communities.”
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