How did your school do on state tests? Here’s the data for every San Diego County public school

The percentage of San Diego County public school students who at least met expectations of statewide standardized tests rose slightly last year, but they’re still lower than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, new data released Thursday show.

Nearly 54% of San Diego County students met or exceeded the standard for English language arts in the 2024-25 test results, and nearly 42% met or exceeded the standard for math. Passage rates in both subjects were up by roughly a percentage point since last year.

Those outcomes are better than the statewide average, but they also showed less improvement than the statewide scores did. Statewide, almost 49% met or exceeded the English standard, and around 37% met or exceeded the math standard — both up by around two percentage points.

And in San Diego Unified — the region’s largest school district, and the state’s second largest — students outperformed both the county and state. Around 56% of students in the district met or exceeded the English language arts standard, up by about two percentage points, and around 45% met or exceeded the math standard, up by about one point.

“These results demonstrate that our intentional focus on literacy, mathematics and data-driven instruction is making a difference in classrooms across San Diego Unified,” said Superintendent Fabi Bagula.

“Every percentage point of growth represents more students moving closer to meeting grade-level expectations,” she added. “Our work is not finished, but these results show that with focus, resources, and collaboration, we can accelerate learning and close opportunity gaps.”

Every spring, California public school students in third through eighth grade, as well as 11th-graders, take comprehensive, end-of-year standardized tests in English language arts and math as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP. Private school students do not take the tests.

CAASPP scores offer a consistent indicator of student academic performance that can be compared across the state and over time. But some educators have warned of limits to how useful they are in judging or improving academic performance.

That’s partly because they’re a backward look: The test scores come out several months after students take the tests, when those students have generally moved on to the next grade.

Countywide as well as statewide, CAASPP scores reflect some stubborn achievement gaps among student groups — particularly in connection with students’ family income levels.

Within San Diego County, only about 21% of socioeconomically disadvantaged students met the English language arts standard — compared with 70% of students who weren’t disadvantaged. Math reflected a similar gap: Just 16% of socioeconomically disadvantaged students met expectations there, versus 60% of students who weren’t disadvantaged.

By contrast, roughly the same share of homeless students passed the tests compared with students who were not homeless.

The county’s top performers underscore the impacts of student family income.

In all of the 10 districts with the highest rates of students passing both math and English, fewer than a quarter of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. And in most of the 10 districts with the lowest passing rates, a majority of students were socioeconomically disadvantaged.