California released its 2025-26 statewide test results on October 15, 2026, and the gains were small again. Just 49.3% of students scored proficient or advanced in English language arts, up 0.5 percentage points from last year. Math proficiency rose 1.1 points to 38.4%, a pace that tracks the national picture after U.S. teens ranked 23rd in math on a 2026 global exam.

Both scores still trail pre-pandemic results. In 2018-19, 50.87% of California students met the English standard and 39.73% met the math standard. The state now sits 1.6% below that English mark and 1.4% below it in math.

Those gaps matter more because grade inflation has made report cards a weaker signal of readiness.

Why It Matters

Math is the weak spot, and the statewide CAASPP results database shows how wide the gap is. About 38.2% of California students scored at the lowest “minimal” level in math, nearly the same share that reached proficient or advanced.

That gap shows up on campus, where UC San Diego’s remedial math class filled up for fall 2026 with 175 students on waitlists.

Weak math skills carry a large price tag for families. That UC San Diego course costs about $1,762 in tuition and fees and earns no credit toward a degree. Each delayed quarter at UC San Diego adds about $6,608 in tuition and fees, and those costs feed the average student loan debt graduates carry.

When you push that into real life, it’s not a shock why so many young adults don’t understand how a lot of the basics of personal finance work in their own lives.

How Did California Students Score By Grade In 2026?

Third graders made no progress in reading, and high school juniors are still behind in math. The table below compares 2025-26 results with last year and with 2018-19. Those 2018-19 scores were the last ones posted before COVID-19 and before the University of California went test-optional.

Third-grade English proficiency held at 44.1%, compared with 44.2% last year and 48.5% in 2018-19. Third-grade math rose to 47.0% but remains more than 3 points below its pre-pandemic level. Math builds on itself, and the high school math sequence colleges prefer depends on skills students master during elementary school.

The 11th-grade results matter most for college costs. Only 31.9% of juniors scored proficient or advanced in math, below the 32.2% posted in 2018-19. Junior English scores reached 57.4% and edged past their pre-pandemic level, according to the state’s grade 11 results.

Cal State uses these junior-year scores to place admitted freshmen across the 22 campuses that now offer three-year bachelor’s degrees.

Under the state’s Early Assessment Program, juniors who score “advanced” can start in college-level English or math at a CSU campus. Students who score “developing” or “minimal” go into supported college-level courses unless SAT, ACT, or other measures exempt them.

Roughly 68% of California juniors fell short of proficient in math. Since an SAT score can exempt students from supported courses, SAT prep gives those juniors a second route into standard college-level math.

Which Student Groups Gained The Most?

Black and Latino students posted the largest gains, but wide gaps remain. EdSource reported that 21.5% of Black students and 27% of Latino students scored proficient in math, compared with 51.4% of white students and 70.5% of Asian students.

About 36% of UC San Diego freshmen are first-generation college students. Most of the school’s remedial math students come from high schools that serve large numbers of low-income and minority families.

Black students gained 1.5% in math and 0.9% in English, reaching 33.7% proficiency in English. Among socioeconomically disadvantaged students, 72.6% did not meet the math standard.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said in the Department of Education release that “our work is far from finished.” Troy Flint of the California School Boards Association went further, telling EdSource the pace of growth is “unacceptable.”

Neither reaction addresses college readiness directly, and we’re seeing how high GPAs and test-optional admissions can mask weak math skills.

What Should College-Bound Families Do Now?

Juniors in California should release their 11th-grade scores to Cal State. The Early Assessment Program requires students to authorize the release of their English and math results separately, and the scores are used only for placement after admission.

Juniors who score “proficient” must still pass an approved year-long senior English or math course with a C- or better. Put the score release on your college application checklist for junior year.

Seniors who scored “developing” or “minimal” can still avoid a catch-up course with strong SAT or ACT results or high school coursework. Families can use the College Investor ROI calculator to see how an extra term of tuition changes the payoff of a degree.

Parents of younger students can look up their own school and district results in the state database, then compare them with the statewide figures above.

How This Connects

California’s scores land in the middle of a fight over college admissions testing. The University of California went test-optional in 2020, and a group of 1,427 faculty members has since pushed UC to restore the SAT for STEM applicants. The 2026 scores continue to give that push more data, since fewer than one in three juniors can show math proficiency on the state test.

Families of high achieving students are already adjusting. Students are sending SAT scores again even though most colleges don’t require them, and a growing list of schools has brought back SAT and ACT requirements for 2027.

What’s Next

This year’s score reports use new labels: “proficient” and “advanced” replace “standard met” and “standard exceeded.” The state says only the reporting labels and descriptions changed, so the 2026 scores compare directly with past years.

The 2026-27 tests will be the first taken by students who went through California’s new K-2 reading screening, according to EdSource. Separately, the UC faculty push to restore the SAT heads to an Academic Senate recommendation due by June 2027.