Newsom Gaslights Over California’s Bad Student Test Scores

We haven’t had good news for far too many years about California’s K-12 public education system. Math and English test scores have fallen to embarrassing lows. Yet, many adults remember when the public education system was the best in the country.

The latest student performance results are out, and it’s not pretty. Lance Izumi, Senior Director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, analyzed the latest 2025-26 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CASPP) scores, as well as Governor Gavin Newsom’s ridiculous reaction, and fairytale-level propaganda. 

“If he wasn’t a politician, Gavin Newsom should have been a makeup artist because no one has put more lipstick on California’s education pig than he,” Izumi said. “The state has just released the latest round of poor student test scores, and the governor immediately splashed bright colors over the dark results.”

Izumi harshly criticizes Governor Gavin Newsom for his political spin of poor student test results as “progress.”

Izumi explains the four performance levels on the exam – “advanced, proficient, developing, and minimal,” for what should be above grade level, at grade level, below grade level, and 3-4 grade levels ago, or failing.

“For a student to meet grade-level standards, he or she must score at either the advanced or proficient level,” Izumi explains. “Scoring at the developing or minimal levels means that the student did not score at grade level.”

The latest 2025-26 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CASPP) scores show that only 49.3% of students in grades 3–8 and grade 11 met grade-level standards of proficient or advanced, in English language arts. This is an increase of just 0.5 percentage points from the prior year, meaning a majority of students, 50.7%, did not.

“Worse, only 38.4 percent of California students scored at the proficient or advanced level on the 2025-26 CASPP math exam, which was an increase of 1.2 percent from the year earlier,” Izumi explains. “In other words, more than six out of 10 – 61.6 percent – of students failed to score at grade level.”

Let that sink in: 61.6% of students failed to score at grade level on the math exam, and 50.7% failed to score at grade level in English language arts.

“New California test scores show most students don’t meet standards in math, English,” EdSource plainly stated, Izumi notes.

“But these depressing results are reasons for celebration, according to Newsom,” Izumi beholds.

The Governor claims, “California students’ academic achievements continue rising under the Newsom administration.”

There’s that “lipstick on California’s education pig.”

Newsom’s press release portrayed the minuscule gains as evidence that his TK-12 investments are working and that academic achievement continues to rise. Newsom said:

California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps: from universal transitional kindergarten and expanded learning, to literacy and math supports, community schools, universal school meals and other investments. The continued progress we are seeing is a testament to the hard work of students, families and educators across the state — and we will continue working to build on these gains.

Not so fast, Gavin.

Izumi counters that the 2025-26 figures remain below pre-pandemic 2018-19 levels:

For instance, in pre-pandemic 2018-19, 51.7 percent of California students scored at grade level in English, versus 49.3 in 2025-26.

Similarly, in math, 39.7 percent of students scored at grade level in math in 2018-19, compared to 38.4 percent in 2025-16.

At the current slow rate of improvement, it would take decades for all students to reach grade-level proficiency, Izumi says.

Newsom’s press release is pure propaganda and deception.

Newsom’s deceptive presentation combined the “developing” category, which does not meet grade-level standards, with proficient and advanced levels to produce higher-looking figures, 71% in English and 61.8% in math.

Gov. Newsom also highlighted gains in specific school districts without providing the low baseline proficiency rates.

“In his press release, the governor cited the test-score gains in several school districts but never gives the baseline proportion of students achieving at grade-level proficiency,” Izumi says:

For example, he cited the Exeter Unified School District, saying that math scores in the district improved by 2.3 percentage points.  What he does not say, though, is that only 36.9 percent of students in Exeter schools scored at the proficient or advanced levels on the math test, which is below the statewide percentage of 38.4 percent.

Also, Newsom points to the gains among black students.  It is true that black students scored a 1.5 percent improvement in math.  However, he fails to mention that barely one out of four—21.5 percent— black students score at the proficient/advanced levels.

Adding insult to injury, despite a 60% increase in per-pupil spending since 2018-19 when Newsom was elected, to more than $27,000 in 2025-26, outcomes have not improved.

“Shockingly, Newsom’s press release cited State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond,” Izumi continues. “After obligatory praise for Newsom’s education spending agenda, Thurmond admitted: ‘These investments have laid an important foundation, but we must do more to translate them into stronger academic outcomes.’ In other words, all of Newsom’s spending has not given California taxpayers much bang for their billions of bucks.”

Newsom’s emphasis on “prioritizing equity” artificially equalizes reported outcomes, as Newsom did by combining performance categories. Most students are still failing to reach proficiency, yet the governor claims a win, amounting to mere educational propaganda – or, as Izumi says, “Edu-Ganda.”  

Lance Izumi is the co-author, along with Wenyuan Wu, of the newly released PRI book The Great Equity Epidemic: Students, Parents and Educators Reveal How DEI Is Destroying American Education.