Oakdale Joint Unified dashboard shows mixed results; staff flag chronic absenteeism and EL progress declines

District staff presented the 2025 California Schools Dashboard and said the picture is mixed: high marks in graduation and college-and-career measures, but worrying increases for chronic absenteeism and suspension in some schools and a drop in English-learner progress at others.

"We did slip lower in several areas," a district staff member told the board, explaining the dashboard’s two-part coloring system that reflects both status and year-to-year change. Staff repeatedly emphasized that the dashboard is a snapshot: colors reflect current status and change between the 2023–24 and 2024–25 data.

At the site level, administrators highlighted that students with disabilities were in the red for chronic absenteeism at some schools. The presenter noted that English-learner progress “had a pretty significant drop,” while some elementary and high school indicators — including points above standard in ELA and math at several sites and a rise in the high school graduation rate — showed gains.

Board members asked for clarification about certain indicators. One trustee asked how the college-and-career indicator is calculated; the staff presenter said it is a composite of multiple measures, including AP completion, dual-enrollment credits, A–G completion rates and other course completions that the state incorporates into the indicator.

The board did not take policy action during the presentation; staff said principals are aware of the flagged subgroups and are planning site-level responses. The district encouraged trustees and the public to review the full dashboard online and raised the expectation that the data will inform interventions and monitoring in the coming months.

The district will return to the board with more detailed site-level actions and monitoring plans as principals finalize intervention strategies.