Santa Barbara Unified Test Scores and School Data Show Need for Improvement 

Recent test results and district data showed how students in the Santa Barbara Unified School District are faring — in short, not great but not terrible, either. 

Let’s start with the bad news. According to results from the fall Renaissance Star Assessments, more than half of district students failed to meet grade-level standards in reading and math. 

The Star Assessment results are focused on 2nd-through-6th-grade students because 1st graders also take a different early literacy test while they build literacy skills, with only 30 taking the Star test this year. 

This semester, scores show that only 42 percent of 1st-through-6th-grade students met or exceeded grade-level standards. That leaves 1,233 students who did not. But that score did inch up two percentage points from last year’s 40 percent.  

These graphs show where Santa Barbara Unified lands when compared to the statewide average for meeting grade-level standards. | Credit: Santa Barbara Unified School Districts 

In math, 35 percent of elementary students met or exceeded grade-level standards. Fifth graders had the lowest scores with only 27 percent meeting or exceeding standards. However, again, that is higher than last year’s scores at 30 percent. 

School boardmembers addressed the somewhat dismal results at their November 12 meeting. They noted that they want to find ways to support schools and student populations, and find opportunities for growth and improvement, focusing on individual students and schools to locate the greatest areas of need. But they also emphasized that numbers are not the full picture. 

“There’s humanity involved here — there are kids, there are teachers, there are attitudes, there are moods,” said boardmember Bill Banning. “There’s all this kind of stuff that comes in, and it’s complicated by demographic differences from school to school and wealth.”

On a better note, as a whole, based on the California Department of Education’s school dashboard, the district is only 5.5 points below the grade-level standard for reading, compared to the state average of 13.2 points below standard. In math, the district improved for the second year in a row to 36 points below standard, while the state average is 47.8 points below. 

And certain, overachieving schools — Franklin, Washington, La Colina, and Dos Pueblos — are 4 to 43 points above the standard in English Language Arts and 3 to 13 points above the standard in math, seeing improvements of up to 21 points in both subjects. 

Additionally, chronic absenteeism has declined across the district to 16.9 percent, college and career readiness increased to 60.4 percent, emergent multilingual learner progress increased to 46.9 percent making progress, and high school graduation rates remained high at 92.4 percent. 

“I am proud of the outstanding work our students, teachers, staff, and administrators are doing to increase achievement,” said Superintendent Hilda Maldonado. “The improving data reflects the collective efforts to enhance curriculum, align practices across schools, and provide meaningful professional development. Thanks to everyone’s contributions, our district is continuing to trend in the right direction, and most importantly, our students are thriving.”