Curriculum Explainer
The Standards Tracker
WCSD's curriculum and test scores vs. the state and nearby districts — every number sourced.
- Page status
- Published
- Last updated
- 2026-08-25
- Sources
The question I started with
“What are our kids actually being taught, and how would any of us know whether it's working?”
Three principal findings
What a parent should know first, before diving into the charts.
WCSD beats the state average
+22 to +31 pts
WCSD students score well above the state average in both ELA and math. That is the good news.
But trails nearby peers
9–16 pts
WCSD trails Lafayette and Orinda Union — the closest comparison districts — by 9 to 16 points. WCSD is strong compared with the state, not unusually strong compared with its neighbors.
The equity gap is real
~28–29 pts
The gap between economically disadvantaged students and their peers is the starkest number on this page — and it is independent of how WCSD compares to other districts.
The question: What are our kids actually learning?
What our kids are taught
WCSD's currently adopted core programs, from the district's own curriculum pages. Hover (or tap) the info icon next to a program to see the state context behind it.
| Subject | Grades | Program | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELA | K–8 | Reading and Writing Units of StudyHeinemann (Lucy Calkins / TCRWP) | Core program |
| ELA | K–6 | 95 Phonics Core Program (foundational skills)95 Percent Group | Foundational-skills supplement |
| ELA | K–6 | Jump Rope Readers (decodable texts)Heinemann | Decodable-texts supplement |
| How these fit together: These are two complementary programs used together, district-wide, in every WCSD elementary and middle school — not alternatives, and not specific to any one school. | |||
| Math | TK–5 | Bridges in MathematicsThe Math Learning Center | Core program |
| Math | 6–8 | Amplify Desmos Math CAAmplify | Core program |
| Math | 7–8 (accelerated) | Big Ideas MathematicsBig Ideas Learning | Core program |
| Science | K–2 | STEMscopesAccelerate Learning | Core program |
| Science | 3–8 | Amplify ScienceAmplify | Core program |
Context worth knowing: California's AB 1454 (2025) requires teacher preparation and district professional development to align with the state's ELA/ELD framework — in plain terms, the “science of reading”: explicit phonics taught alongside comprehension.
That is exactly the structure WCSD already uses — Units of Study as the core program, with 95 Phonics Core as the explicit-phonics supplement. Whether the pairing is implemented with enough depth hasn't been independently evaluated in anything public we found.
The question: How are we doing compared with other districts?
WCSD vs. the state and its neighbors
Percent of students who met or exceeded the standard, district-wide, 2025 — sorted highest to lowest. Lafayette, Orinda, and San Ramon Valley are the closest real-world comparison set; Mt. Diablo is WCSD's larger neighbor.
Met or exceeded standard, 2025
WCSD sits well above the state average in both subjects — but trails the other high-performing central Contra Costa districts by 9 to 16 points. WCSD is in a cluster of affluent, high-performing districts, not unusually strong even within the county.
Contra Costa County's own aggregate figure reflects the small population the County Office of Education directly serves — largely alternative, court, and community schools — so it isn't a meaningful comparison point and is left out.
Behind the Number
Walnut Creek's schools are more diverse than people assume — in race, in the languages families speak at home, in income, and in family circumstances. Our schools have all that mix. Compare us to Lafayette, Orinda, and Moraga — nearby districts with strong test scores — and Walnut Creek teaches about five times the share of English Learners. It's one of our real strengths, and we don't talk about it enough.
Composition
Here’s who we are
Enrollment across the district, shown as shares of students.
48%
White
16%
Asian
16%
Hispanic
12%
Two or More Races
3%
Black
2.5%
Filipino
Across our classrooms
- English Learners
- ~14%
- Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
- 16%
- Students with Disabilities
- 10%
Performance by group
The average doesn’t tell the whole story
California’s five performance bands run from red, the lowest, to blue, the highest. These are the state’s reported ratings, not an invented score.
ELA
Math
Economically disadvantaged — ELA gap
27.7 pts
47.8% met or exceeded the ELA standard, compared with 75.6% of their peers.
Economically disadvantaged — math gap
29.1 pts
44.7% met or exceeded the math standard, compared with 73.8% of their peers.
The question: How does each school compare?
School by school, 2025
Percent met or exceeded standard at each WCSD school site, ranked by the average of the two subjects, highest to lowest — both columns stay visible so you can see where a school over- or under-indexes on one subject. Tice Creek and the district-wide row sit below the ranked list. Neither is a rankable individual school result.
| # | School | ELA 2025 | Math 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 71.69% | 75.57% | |
| 2 | 68.40% | 73.95% | |
| 3 | 69.39% | 66.67% | |
| 4 | 70.40% | 64.87% | |
| 5 | 63.69% | 65.56% | |
| 6 | 63.47% | 63.51% | |
| — | — | — | |
| — | 70.80% | 68.73% |
Why Tice Creek isn't ranked: Tice Creek School is the district's only K-8, and its 2025 CAASPP results aren't separately reported in this data pull — so there's no score to place in the ranking. Why they aren't reported is one of the open questions this tracker carries; the numbers will be added here as soon as they're available.
The question: Where do scores rise and fall across grades?
Grade by grade, district-wide
The 2025 results broken out by tested grade (3–8). Two patterns are worth watching — neither is unusual nationally, but both are worth asking the district about directly rather than assuming a cause.
ELA and math by grade, 2025
ELA is lowest in grade 3 — the first tested grade — then climbs; math dips at grade 6, the move into Walnut Creek Intermediate, and softens again in grade 8.
- Grade 363%72%
- Grade 470%71%
- Grade 576%70%
- Grade 675%64%
- Grade 770%71%
- Grade 871%64%
Each row is one grade, with ELA and math placed end to end. Read each segment’s own label as its percentage, not the total bar length.
Key takeaways
- Math dips at the elementary-to-middle transition. Grade 6 math falls to 63.6% — from roughly 70% across grades 3–5 — then partly recovers in grade 7.
- ELA's floor is grade 3. At 62.5%, the first tested grade is the lowest ELA point; scores climb through elementary school.
- Grade 8 math also softens (64.4%, below grade 7) — a second dip worth watching alongside grade 6.
- Neither pattern is unusual nationally — but both are concrete enough to ask the district about directly rather than assuming a cause.
The question: Did the pandemic change how our schools are doing?
Before and after the pandemic
Compare each school’s 2019 baseline with the first full post-pandemic test in 2022 and the most recent results from 2025.
ELA before and after the pandemic: 2019 → 2022 → 2025
Parkmead and Indian Valley lost the most ground after 2019 and still trail their pre-pandemic mark; Buena Vista and Murwood are at or above theirs.
At or above 2019
back to — or past — the pre-pandemic baselineStill below 2019
ordered from smallest to largest remaining gapReference points
not individual schoolsThe pattern is mixed: Buena Vista and Murwood are at or above their 2019 levels in both subjects, while Indian Valley, Parkmead, and Walnut Heights remain below them. Parkmead shows the largest gap; the others began from higher baselines, so their declines tell a different story.
The question: Are other districts teaching the same things?
What similar districts use
WCSD's curriculum next to the Lamorinda districts (the closest comparison set) and three Bay Area districts parents commonly recognize — organized into two tables, elementary and middle, with reading & writing and math side by side so you can compare every district at a glance. The aspirational set is a ceiling reference, not apples-to-apples — their enrollment, funding, and demographics differ.
The question: What do the ratings actually measure?
Ratings vs. reality
GreatSchools ratings can make schools with very different state-test results look nearly identical. The raw percentages provide a sharper comparison.