Chronic student absenteeism improved again this year in San Diego County overall, but school performance has remained stubbornly flat in other areas like English and math test scores and high school graduation rates, new annual school ratings for the 2023-2024 school year released by the state Thursday show. The state also released a raft of other important data about schools and students for the most recent school year, including data about chronic absenteeism, student discipline and high school graduation. Here’s a brief rundown of some of those numbers for San Diego County: Absenteeism: Overall, 19% of public school students countywide were considered chronically absent this most recent school year, meaning they missed at least 10% of the days in the school year. That rate is down from 23% the previous year. In San Diego Unified, about 22% of students were chronically absent, down from 26% the previous year. Suspension: Public schools in the county suspended 2.8% of students this past school year, compared to 3.2% of students the previous year. San Diego Unified suspended 2.6% of its students, which is essentially the same as the previous year. Graduation: This year, about 85% of San Diego County graduating high school seniors graduated within four years, which is the same rate as the previous year. In San Diego Unified, 88% of students graduated within four years, which is down from 90% the previous year. The dashboard has been California’s primary way of rating school quality and holding schools accountable ever since it first went live in 2017. School districts, district schools and charter schools each receive their own ratings every year. All the ratings are online at caschooldashboard.org.     The dashboard doesn’t provide a single score for each district and school. Instead, it gives seven different ratings in the following areas: Standardized test scores in English language arts (how far students on average scored from standard) Standardized test scores in math Suspension rate Chronic absenteeism rate for K-8 students High school graduation rate (including both four- and five-year graduations) English learner progress, or the percentage of students learning English as a second language who either made progress or maintained high performance from the previous year on the state’s language proficiency test College and career preparedness, or the percentage of high school graduates who met at least one of several metrics, such as passing multiple Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams, completing a career technical education pathway, completing a pre-apprenticeship or government job program, passing college credit courses or passing state standardized tests in English and math School ratings are assigned as colors, with blue indicating the highest performance, followed by green, yellow, orange, and lastly red, which indicates the worst performance. The color ratings factor in both current-year performance and how much the school or district improved, worsened or remained the same as the previous year. Therefore, colors can have multiple meanings. For example, a yellow rating could mean a school performed poorly last year but improved this year. It could also mean the school had an average performance this year that didn’t change from last year. Or it could mean the school performed very well last year but not as well this year. Here’s how San Diego Unified, the county’s largest district and the state’s second-largest, did on its dashboard: English language arts — yellow: The district maintained a medium level of performance from the previous year. On average, students scored 7 points above standard, which isn’t much different from the previous year. Math — yellow: It maintained a medium level of performance from the previous year. On average, students scored 24 points below standard, which isn’t much different from the previous year. Chronic absenteeism — yellow: The district has a very high rate of chronic absenteeism (21% for K-8 students), but it improved significantly (by about 6 percentage points) from the previous year. Suspension — green: San Diego Unified has a low suspension rate (2.5%) that didn’t change from the previous year. Graduation rate — orange: The district has an average rate (about 88%) — but it’s fallen from last year (by 1.5 percentage points). English learner progress — yellow: The district maintained a medium level of performance from last year; about 50% of English learners met the criteria for progress. College and career readiness — green: San Diego Unified has a high readiness rate — 63% of graduates were considered prepared for college or career — and it improved from last year by about 3 percentage points. In addition to providing overall ratings for each school and district, the dashboard assigns color ratings for 14 student groups within schools and districts, including racial groups and vulnerable student groups such as students with disabilities, English learners and foster youth. California does not deal punitive consequences to districts or schools with poor performance. Rather, it offers “differentiated assistance,” or support for improvement, to districts, charter schools and county education offices that are deemed low-performing for certain student groups or in certain performance areas. This year most school districts in the county met the criteria, either because they newly qualified this year or because they are in the second year of assistance after qualifying last year.