Improvement Measures

Measures in the data system were created by educators and experts with a shared belief that holding educators accountable for multiple outcomes helps light the path toward improvement for all of our students and schools. These measures are:

Student Academic Growth

The growth measure identifies schools where students are learning significantly faster or slower than their academic peers. Our growth measure is helping pinpoint where outcomes are improving for specific groups of students so we can apply what we are learning to better support all of California’s 6.2 million students.

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Student Social-Emotional Learning

Social-emotional surveys give schools another way to assess efforts to support students. Data comes from surveys of students in grades 5 to 12 and their views on their own academic abilities (self-efficacy); ability to grow (growth mindset); ability to regulate emotions and behaviors (self- management); and understanding of others’ perspectives and ability to empathize (social awareness).

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High School Readiness

This indicator includes the percentage of 8th graders with: a GPA of 2.5 or better; no Ds or Fs in English language arts or math; attendance of 96 percent or better; and no suspensions. The data is helping to identify the substantive number of students most at risk of not graduating as they enter high school and to inform educators about interventions and assistance that must be provided for students to succeed.

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School Culture/Climate

School culture/climate data connects to student achievement results in the data system. Students in grades 5 to 12; teachers and staff; and parents, guardians and caregivers participate in surveys to assess their perceptions of teaching and learning, interpersonal relationships, safety, and school‐community engagement. The student and staff survey items were developed by WestEd for the California Department of Education and are used in the data system with the permission of the California Department of Education.

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College and Career Readiness

Linked Learning certification and analytics support continuous improvement in college and career pathways, helping districts and schools to close achievement gaps, and driving equity in student preparation for success after high schools.

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Graduation Rates

The data system includes 4-year, 5-year and 6-year cohort graduation rates, placing value on continuing to work with youth who need an additional year or two to complete high school graduation requirements (e.g., late entering English learners who need additional time as they learn English along with their academic coursework).

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Suspension Rates

School-level suspension/expulsion rates are reported in two ways: The percent of individual students suspended/expelled at a school during the year in question (i.e., unduplicated counts of students’ suspensions divided by student enrollment); and a count of suspension incidents per 100 students at the school during the year.

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English Learner Progress

The data system includes a re-designation metric specifically to attend to the reclassification of English learners as fluent English proficient before youth become Long-Term English-Learners. It purposely examines re-designation rates in terms of number of students who redesignate in a given year, divided by those students redesignated during the year in question plus any non-redesignated English learners with five years or more of instruction.

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Chronic Absenteeism

This measure considers a student to be chronically absent if that student has an attendance rate of less than or equal to 90 percent. The number of chronically absent students is then aggregated to the school level to determine the number and proportion of chronically absent students for each school.

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Academic Performance

Academic performance is measured using the scale score on statewide assessments for all students in grades 3 through 8 with valid scores, similar to data on the California school dashboard.

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Disproportionality in Special Education

This indicator compares each subgroup’s representation in the special education population at a particular school to that subgroup’s representation in the overall school population, identifying cases where a particular subgroup is overrepresented in special education at a level that is statistically meaningful (99 percent confidence level).

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