Santa Cruz students gain, remain below state and pre-pandemic levels

Santa Cruz County students made modest progress in math and reading, but the improvement has not closed the gap with California students overall or returned performance to pre-pandemic levels.

County results

The latest results show gains in both subjects for Santa Cruz County students. The improvement is limited: county performance remains below the state average in math and reading.

The results also remain below the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. That leaves the county with progress to build on, while showing that the recovery in student performance is not complete.

How to read the comparison

The state average provides a benchmark for how Santa Cruz County students compare with students across California. The pre-pandemic comparison provides a separate measure: whether student performance has returned to where it stood before the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Santa Cruz County’s results fall short on both measures. Students are moving upward, but the gains are not large enough to erase the distance between current performance and either benchmark.

Math and reading

Math and reading are both part of the update. The county saw small gains in each subject, rather than improvement in only one area. At the same time, both subjects remain below state averages and pre-pandemic levels.

That combination makes the results a mixed picture. The direction is positive, but the remaining gaps show that student performance has not fully recovered.

What comes next

Future results will show whether the county’s gains continue and whether the gap with state averages narrows. They will also indicate whether Santa Cruz County students move closer to, or return to, pre-pandemic performance levels.

For now, the clearest takeaway is that the county has made incremental progress in math and reading while continuing to trail both comparison points.

Lookout Santa Cruz reported on the county’s student results.