Capistrano Unified reports gains on 2025 California School Dashboard, highlights foster‑youth progress
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Summary
District presenters told trustees the 2025 California School Dashboard shows improvements in ELA and math, English learner progress (46.8% made gains), chronic absenteeism declined to 11.7%, graduation rate remains above 95%, and Dana Hills High School is no longer designated TSI.
The Capistrano Unified School District presented its 2025 California School Dashboard to the board on Dec. 17, reporting improvements across multiple indicators and outlining next steps to support students identified for additional assistance.
Associate Superintendent Greg Merwin and district staff said the district again earned the highest performance color (blue) in English language arts and posted gains in mathematics despite introducing new curriculum this year. Merwin noted the district's ELA points above standard reached 52.9, a district high in the dashboard cycles going back to 2019.
District staff described changes to state metrics that affect comparisons across years. The state revised the college‑and‑career indicator so that being "prepared" can now include passing two AP courses with a C‑ minus or better or other combinations of exams and courses; staff cautioned that the 2024 figures were recalculated under the new rules. The district reported a 2025 college‑and‑career indicator of 68.8 under the revised metric.
Staff highlighted subgroup progress: 46.8% of English learners made progress toward English proficiency on the ELPAC, an improvement from the prior year; chronic absenteeism declined to 11.7%; and the district continues to maintain a graduation rate above 95% for the cohort. Presenters credited investments in targeted intervention ("win time" in elementary and tutorial in secondary), interim assessments, and focused work for foster youth for measurable gains.
On foster youth specifically, the district reported progress that moved it from year 1 to year 2 in the state's differentiated assistance process with the Orange County Department of Education, noting focused case management and transportation improvements that helped return some students to school faster.
What happened next: trustees asked detailed questions about metric changes, cohort definitions for small charter schools, and the district's capacity to track college‑level coursework taken at community colleges. Staff said they maintain separate datasets and are negotiating data‑sharing agreements with local community colleges to improve tracking.
Context: presenters cautioned that declines in enrollment and state funding uncertainties (COLA estimates and one‑time revenues) require ongoing fiscal attention even as academic indicators show improvement. The dashboard presentation included comparisons with charter schools inside district boundaries and a reminder that the district will continue follow‑up reporting on identified schools.