College Elementary

The area has two schools: Santa Ynez Elementary, serving grades 1–8 with 147 students, and College Elementary, serving kindergarten with 28 students. Test results are reported only for Santa Ynez, so the records do not allow an academic comparison between the schools. In 2025–2026, Santa Ynez’s all-grades results were above California’s in ELA (55% versus 49%, a 6-point lead) and math (40% versus 38%, a 1-point lead), but below in science (33% versus 36%, a 3-point deficit). The most important finding is that Santa Ynez remains ahead of the state in ELA and math overall, but has fallen behind in science.

Santa Ynez’s grade-level results vary: its strongest reported ELA result was grade 6, at 65%—17 points above the state—while grade 5 was 38%, 12 points below. In science, grade 8 was 39%, 4 points above the state, while grade 5 was 25%, 10 points below. Math results were close to state levels across grades, with Santa Ynez above the state in grades 3, 4, and 6 and below in grades 5, 7, and 8. The clearest school-to-school difference in the available figures is chronic absenteeism: it was 17% at Santa Ynez and 29% at College Elementary, a 12-point gap. Santa Ynez was below the state rate of 18%, while College Elementary was above it.

Santa Ynez’s results declined from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: ELA fell 6 points, math 1 point, and science 12 points. The state’s results rose in all three subjects, so Santa Ynez’s state-relative gaps narrowed by 6 points in ELA, 2 in math, and 16 in science. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile for Santa Ynez rose from the 70th to the 73rd, then fell to the 61st in 2025–2026; this ranking is separate from the test-score changes. In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible figures were 46% at Santa Ynez and 36% at College Elementary. Student-teacher ratios were nearly the same: 14.1 and 14.0, respectively.