Curriculum Explainer
The Standards Tracker
WCSD's curriculum and test scores vs. the state and nearby districts — every number sourced.
- Status
- Published
- Last updated
- 2026-08-25
- Sources
The question I had as a mom
“What are our kids actually being taught, and how would a parent 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
7–19 pts
WCSD trails Lafayette and Orinda Union — the closest comparison districts — by 7 to 19 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.
Parent 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.
Parent 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 7 to 19 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.
Parent question: Who is being left behind?
The gap that matters most
Economically disadvantaged students vs. their peers, district-wide, 2025. This subgroup is small in WCSD — but the size of the gap is real and independent of district size.
ELA gap
27.7 pts
47.8% of economically disadvantaged students met or exceeded the ELA standard, vs. 75.6% of their peers.
Math gap
29.1 pts
44.7% of economically disadvantaged students met or exceeded the math standard, vs. 73.8% of their peers.
This is the single starkest number in the tracker — a roughly 28–29 point gap in both subjects. It's a legitimate equity question regardless of how other districts' gaps compare; those comparisons weren't pulled in this first pass.
Parent 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 Valley and the district-wide row sit below the ranked list; neither is a rankable individual school result.
| # | School | ELA 2025 | Math 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Buena Vista Elementary | 71.69% | 75.57% |
| 2 |  Walnut Heights Elementary | 68.40% | 73.95% |
| 3 |  Murwood Elementary | 69.39% | 66.67% |
| 4 |  Walnut Creek Intermediate (6–8) | 70.40% | 64.87% |
| 5 |  Indian Valley Elementary | 63.69% | 65.56% |
| 6 |  Parkmead Elementary | 63.47% | 63.51% |
| — | Tice Valley Elementary | — | — |
| — | District-wide (all schools) | 70.80% | 68.73% |
- Parkmead Elementary: The only WCSD school that declined in both subjects year over year (down ~4.4 pts ELA, ~3.7 pts math from 2024). A one-year dip can be cohort noise rather than a program problem — worth understanding before drawing conclusions.
- Tice Valley Elementary: No result returned in this pull. CAASPP is only administered in grades 3+, and this school's tested-grade enrollment may be too small to report without suppression. A direct DataQuest check is on the open-questions list.
Parent 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.
Parent question: Did the pandemic change how our schools are doing?
Before and after the pandemic
2019 is the honest pre-pandemic baseline; 2021–22 is the first full post-pandemic test; 2025 is the most recent year. One chart handles both subjects: switch between ELA and math, and between bars by year (easiest for comparing levels) and a trend line (easiest for seeing direction). Schools are grouped by whether they're back to their 2019 mark, ordered from most improved to most declined, with the district-wide and statewide values overlaid on each school's own chart.
Points to consider before reading these charts
- There was no CAASPP test in spring 2020 — schools were closed statewide.
- Testing in 2021 was optional, so that year isn’t comparable and is excluded — the same convention EdSource’s own charts use.
- That makes 2021–22 the first full post-pandemic data point, and 2018–19 the honest “before” baseline these charts use.
- The dashed rows under “Reference points” (district-wide, statewide) are context, not individual schools — and the same two values are overlaid as thin markers on each school’s own chart.
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 schoolsValues show the percent of students who met or exceeded the standard. Bars use a full 0–100% scale; the trend lines use a zoomed shared scale (dashed line marks each row’s 2019 level) so small year-to-year moves stay visible. In the trend view the 2019 → 2022 segment is dotted, with a tick where 2020 and 2021 would sit: there was no test in 2020 and 2021 testing was optional, so no comparable point exists.
The pattern isn't a simple "learning loss, now recovering" story. District-wide and statewide, 2025 is still a hair below 2019 in both subjects. But at the school level it splits into two clear groups: Buena Vista and Murwood are at or above their pre-pandemic level in both subjects, while Indian Valley, Parkmead, and Walnut Heights are all still below their 2019 mark.
Parkmead is down roughly 10 points in both subjects — the largest gap of any WCSD school. Walnut Heights and Indian Valley remain among the district's stronger performers in absolute terms, but both are trending down from a higher pre-pandemic peak rather than climbing back — a different story than Parkmead's, and worth distinguishing.
Parent 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.
Elementary school — reading & writing and math, side by side
| District | Type | Reading & writing | Math |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCSD | Home district | Units of Study + 95 Phonics Core | Bridges in Mathematics |
| Lafayette SD | Nearby peer | Units of Study + Heggerty phonics | Amplify Desmos Math CA |
| Orinda Union SD | Nearby peer | Units of Study + 95% Phonics | Math Expressions Common Core |
| Moraga SD | Nearby peer | Amplify CKLA | Math Expressions |
| Piedmont USD | Aspirational | Fishtank ELA + Sadlier phonics | Bridges in Mathematics |
| Palo Alto USD | Aspirational | Benchmark Advance + Orton-Gillingham | Bridges in Mathematics |
| Saratoga Union SD | Aspirational | Units of Study + Fundations | Eureka Math |
Middle school — reading & writing and math, side by side
| District | Type | Reading & writing | Math |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCSD | Home district | Units of Study | Amplify Desmos Math CA |
| Lafayette SD | Nearby peer | Units of Study | Amplify Desmos Math CA |
| Orinda Union SD | Nearby peer | Units of Study | Big Ideas Math and CPM |
| Moraga SD | Nearby peer | California Collections | Digits (Pearson) |
| Piedmont USD | Aspirational | Units of Study | CPM Core Connections |
| Palo Alto USD | Aspirational | Locally curated (no commercial core) | Big Ideas Math |
| Saratoga Union SD | Aspirational | StudySync | Big Ideas Math |
Each cell shows the program name only. Tap or hover the for the details — phonics supplements, adoption years, publishers, and anything still unconfirmed.
Parent question: What do the ratings actually measure?
Ratings vs. reality
GreatSchools' 1–10 rating is what most parents actually look up — shown here riding next to each school name, with the raw CAASPP numbers doing the ranking, because the two don't always move together.
Elementary schools
Wagner Ranch (Orinda Union) sits at the top on the actual test numbers — and Indian Valley, which carries the same 10/10 rating, sits near the bottom of the same list.
- Wagner Ranch · GreatSchools 10/10Orinda Union SD · Orinda, Contra Costa County91%92%
- Beach · GreatSchools 8/10Piedmont USD · Piedmont, Alameda County87%92%
- Argonaut · GreatSchools 9/10Saratoga Union SD · Saratoga, Santa Clara County86%92%
- Burton Valley · GreatSchools 9/10Lafayette SD · Lafayette, Contra Costa County81%83%
- Duveneck · GreatSchools 9/10Palo Alto USD · Palo Alto, Santa Clara County82%77%
- Camino Pablo · GreatSchools 9/10Moraga SD · Moraga, Contra Costa County77%76%
- Buena Vista · GreatSchools 9/10WCSD · Walnut Creek72%76%
- Walnut Heights · GreatSchools 8/10WCSD · Walnut Creek68%74%
- Murwood · GreatSchools 9/10WCSD · Walnut Creek69%67%
- Indian Valley · GreatSchools 10/10WCSD · Walnut Creek64%66%
- Parkmead · GreatSchools 8/10WCSD · Walnut Creek63%64%
ELA and math are placed end to end so the ranking is visible at a glance — read each segment’s own label as the percentage, not the total bar length. The rating next to each school name is its GreatSchools score.
Middle schools
Same story one level up — identical 8–10 ratings sitting on top of very different state-test results.
- Redwood Middle · GreatSchools 9/10Saratoga Union SD · Saratoga, Santa Clara County89%91%
- Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle · GreatSchools 10/10Palo Alto USD · Palo Alto, Santa Clara County87%83%
- Orinda Intermediate · GreatSchools 10/10Orinda Union SD · Orinda, Contra Costa County88%80%
- Piedmont Middle · GreatSchools 8/10Piedmont USD · Piedmont, Alameda County84%81%
- Joaquin Moraga Intermediate · GreatSchools 9/10Moraga SD · Moraga, Contra Costa County83%73%
- M.H. Stanley Middle · GreatSchools 8/10Lafayette SD · Lafayette, Contra Costa County76%76%
- Walnut Creek Intermediate · GreatSchools 9/10WCSD · Walnut Creek70%65%
ELA and math are placed end to end so the ranking is visible at a glance — read each segment’s own label as the percentage, not the total bar length. The rating next to each school name is its GreatSchools score.
Each comparison district is represented by one school per level — its largest or most typical, not a magnet or outlier — chosen the same way for every district. Tice Valley is omitted; see the school-by-school note above.
What we still need to verify
The open questions matter as much as the answers. Each of these has a direct follow-up path.
- Tice Valley Elementary returned no reportable CAASPP result in this pull — likely too few tested-grade students to report without suppression. A direct DataQuest check is needed.
- Exact adoption years for each WCSD program, and whether any are due for their next state-cycle review — that lives in each school's SARC disclosure, which wasn't machine-readable in this pass.
- Whether WCSD's 95 Phonics Core supplement is implemented with the same depth as peers' phonics add-ons (Heggerty, Orton-Gillingham, Fundations) — program names alone don't capture dosage, pacing, or teacher training.
- Parkmead declined in both subjects year over year — is that cohort noise or a program problem?
- Indian Valley's ELA score fell 11.8 points from 2019 to 2025 — the largest pre-to-post change of any WCSD school. Worth asking the district whether student-population changes explain it before assuming a classroom-instruction cause.
- Has WCSD's own enrollment changed since 2019, and if so, in which direction — pulled from CDE's Annual Enrollment Report / DataQuest.
- Has private-school enrollment in Contra Costa County grown over the same period — pulled from NCES's Private School Universe Survey.
- Does the Harvard/Stanford Education Recovery Scorecard (educationscorecard.org) include WCSD, and if so, does its NWEA-based recovery estimate match the CAASPP-based story on this page?
Sources & methodology
Every figure on this page traces back to one of these. If anyone asks where a number came from, the answer is here.
Per-school EdSource and GreatSchools links for every school in the comparison are in the campaign's research files and available on request — the list above keeps the page readable.
What could change?
No page on this site promises outcomes that depend on future funding, district staff, collective board decisions, or circumstances that cannot yet be known. Here is what would remain undecided — and who would decide it.
Decisions that remain with the board
- Curriculum adoption decisions and the budget that supports implementing them
Delegated to district administration
- How curriculum is rolled out, and how implementation is monitored school by school
Depends on teachers & school staff
- Day-to-day delivery in classrooms depends on teachers — and on the training and support they receive
Funding assumptions
- Curriculum, training, and materials compete for the same budget dollars each year
Enrollment assumptions
Not yet assessed
State & federal dependencies
- State standards, frameworks, and legislation set requirements districts must meet
Known risks
- Strong curriculum implemented weakly is a known failure mode — implementation capacity matters as much as the adoption decision
Questions still unanswered
- How does the district measure whether implementation is working, classroom by classroom?
This is the campaign's language standard in practice: "will" is reserved for what Geetha can personally and directly control — asking for data, explaining trade-offs, making her reasoning public. Everything else is described as what she would advocate for, prioritize, or evaluate — never as a guarantee.