The California Department of Education’s state test results website has posted a notice: aggregate 2025-26 results for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) will open to the public on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 in the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) all took these tests, and families will then be able to see the distribution of results for the state, Orange County, IUSD, and each school. Starting this school year, the four achievement levels carry new names, so it helps to understand how the old and new labels correspond before reading the data.

CAASPP 2025-26 Results: What Happened

The Test Results for California’s Assessments website is preparing for the release of 2025-26 results, with public access set for 8:00 a.m. on October 15. The site publishes aggregate data only, showing the percentage of students at each achievement level for the state, counties, districts, and schools; it does not show individual scores.

Individual Student Score Reports arrive earlier. Under the official CAASPP release timeline, the first Student Score Reports for the Smarter Balanced English and mathematics tests and the California Science Test (CAST) were released in late May 2026, and the remaining reports were released by mid-August. Once a district receives the reports, it has 20 working days to deliver them to families; if it receives them after the school year has ended, the 20 working days count from the start of the new school year.

The subjects and grades tested by CAASPP each year are as follows:

Subject Grades
English language arts/literacy (ELA) Grades 3 through 8 and grade 11
Mathematics Grades 3 through 8 and grade 11
Science (CAST) Grade 5, grade 8, and once in high school

The English and mathematics tests consist of a computer-adaptive portion and a performance task. The computer-adaptive portion adjusts the difficulty of later questions based on how the student answers.

What the New CAASPP Level Names Mean for Irvine Families

California adopted new achievement level names and descriptions in 2025, and they appear starting with the 2025-26 Student Score Reports. According to the California Department of Education’s April 2026 guide for families, only the names and written descriptions have changed:

Level Old label New label
4 Standard Exceeded Advanced
3 Standard Met Proficient
2 Standard Nearly Met Developing
1 Standard Not Met Minimal

The test questions, format, and scoring are unchanged, so results from earlier years and this year can still be compared directly. When a news story or school notice refers to the “percentage Proficient,” it corresponds to what earlier years called “Standard Met.”

The California Department of Education explained the reason for the change: the old labels led many people to assume that Level 3 was a grade-level cutoff and that students below Level 3 were “below grade level.” In fact, every question measures grade-level standards, and the four levels describe how deeply a student has mastered grade-level content.

How to Read a CAASPP Student Score Report

Each subject on the Student Score Report contains three layers of information:

  • Overall score and level: a scale score and its achievement level. Score ranges differ by grade; for example, the grade 5 English range is 2200 to 2730.
  • Area performance: English is divided into Reading and Listening and Writing and Research, and mathematics into Concepts and Procedures and Mathematical Practices. Each area is marked Above Proficient, At or Near Proficient, or Below Proficient.
  • Score history: the student’s scores and levels from prior years. The report notes that standards rise each grade, so a student’s score needs to increase to stay at the same level.

The official Smarter Balanced guide emphasizes that the tests are not pass/fail. Scores reflect both the number and the difficulty of the questions answered correctly.

How to Compare CAASPP School Data

Once the results website opens on October 15, families can use its comparison feature to select up to three entities at a time, either across levels (for example, a district against the state) or at the same level (for example, school against school). The comparison displays the percentage of students at each achievement level.

Three points deserve attention when comparing:

  1. Look at the full distribution, not a single percentage. A high combined share at Levels 3 and 4 does not mean the Level 4 share is also high, and two schools can have very different distributions.
  2. Compare the same grade. Only grade 11 takes the English and mathematics tests in high school, so high school data reflects that year’s 11th graders.
  3. Science results are reported for grade 12. According to CAASPP, the results website reports high school science results for the graduating 12th-grade class, including students who took the science test in grade 10 or grade 11.

Grade 11 CAASPP Scores and California State University Placement

Eleventh graders may opt into the Early Assessment Program (EAP) and send their English and mathematics results to the California State University (CSU) system and participating California community colleges. According to Starting Smarter, the CAASPP site for families, these results serve as one of multiple measures of readiness for college-level English and mathematics coursework; they are used for course placement only and are not used for college admission. Students opt in by selecting the release button at the end of each test.

EDUBUS Recommendations on 2025-26 CAASPP Results

Start with the student’s own score report. Individual reports should reach families no later than 20 working days after the new school year begins. Families who have not received one can ask the school. Area performance says more than the overall score about where a student needs support.

Translate between old and new labels when reading school data. The data released on October 15 is the first to use the new names, and the percentages can be compared directly with earlier years. When media coverage reports a change in a school’s “percentage Proficient,” it should be compared with that school’s earlier “Standard Met” figure, not treated as a new measure.

Keep CAASPP in perspective. According to Starting Smarter, grade 11 CAASPP results are used only for CSU and community college course placement, not for college admission. For Irvine families planning high school academics, course selection, GPA, and AP results remain the main line. Course and college outcome data for each school are covered in the EDUBUS IUSD high school guides, a reading of the four high schools’ School Profiles is in Irvine 2026-27 School Profiles: Five Things to Read, and other Orange County public high schools are covered in the Orange County Top 10 Public High Schools Guide.

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