Summary:
Four high schools in Santa Maria Joint Union High serve grades 9–12, with results ranging from a clear academic leader to a school with much lower test proficiency. In 2025–2026, the four-school averages were 42% in ELA, 17% in math and 25% in science, compared with state averages of 49%, 38% and 36%. Math is the biggest area-wide concern: the average was 22 percentage points below the state.
Ernest Righetti High led the group in all three subjects, with 63% proficiency in ELA, 27% in math and 39% in science; it was also the only school above the state in a subject, with science 3 points higher. Its ELA result was 17 points above the next-highest school, Pioneer Valley High. At the other end, Delta High had the lowest results in each subject: 17% in ELA, 0% in math and 3% in science. It trailed Santa Maria High by 27, 19 and 25 points, respectively. Delta stands out in other measures, too: its reported graduation rate was 97% and dropout rate 3%, the strongest figures among these schools. Santa Maria and Pioneer had relatively close proficiency results, with Pioneer slightly higher in all three subjects.
Recent changes are mixed: the average science result rose 5 points from 2024–2025, math rose 1 point, and ELA fell 1 point. Righetti improved in all three subjects, while Pioneer’s 7-point science gain came with declines of 4 points in ELA and 2 in math. SchoolDigger ranks Righetti highest in the group, at the 65th percentile with three stars; Pioneer’s percentile fell from 56th to 47th. As context, in 2024–2025 the share free/reduced lunch eligible ranged from 56% at Righetti to 79% at Delta, while student-teacher ratios were similar, from 20.7 at Delta to 22.0 at Pioneer.
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