Summary:
Santa Barbara Unified has 10 elementary schools: nine serve kindergarten through sixth grade, and Santa Barbara Charter serves kindergarten through eighth grade. In 2025–26, the schools’ unweighted average proficiency was 45% in English language arts (ELA), 41% in math, and 32% in science; compared with California, the group was 5 percentage points lower in ELA, 3 points higher in math, and 4 points lower in science. The most important finding is how much results vary from one school to another, with school-to-school ranges of 46 points in ELA, 47 in math, and 70 in science.
Washington Elementary led all three subjects, with 65% proficient in ELA, 62% in math, and 74% in science—16, 23, and 38 points above state results, respectively. It led the next-highest school by 11 points in ELA, 8 in math, and 22 in science. At the other end, McKinley Elementary had the lowest ELA and math results, at 19% and 15%; those were 31 and 24 points below the state. Cleveland Elementary had the lowest science result, 4%, or 32 points below the state.
Recent changes were mixed: across the schools, math proficiency rose 2 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while ELA fell 1 point and science rose 2 points—less than the state’s 3-point science gain. Harding University Partnership improved 9 points in math and 27 in science; Santa Barbara Community Academy gained 9 in ELA and 11 in math. In contrast, Santa Barbara Charter fell 10 points in ELA and 24 in science. SchoolDigger’s 2025–26 statewide rankings placed Washington at the group’s highest percentile, the 82nd, and McKinley at the lowest, the 6th. All schools report free/reduced lunch eligible figures for 2024–25, ranging from 25% at Santa Barbara Charter to 91% at Franklin Elementary; Washington reported 41% and McKinley 81%. These are useful context, not explanations for results. Santa Barbara Charter serves a different grade span from the other schools, so its all-grades results are not perfectly comparable.
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