Olive Grove Charter - Santa Barbara

Olive Grove Charter - Santa Barbara is an alternative school in Santa Barbara, California, serving grades K–12 with 74 students; the only nearby school provided for comparison is Santa Barbara County Special Education, an alternative school with 49 students. Olive Grove’s clearest academic challenge is math: in 2025–2026, 12% of students met the standard, compared with 38% statewide—a 26-point gap.

English language arts is a relative strength: Olive Grove’s 45% result was 4 points below the state’s 49%, but 45 points above the nearby school’s 0%. In math, Olive Grove’s 12% was 5 points below the nearby school’s 17%. Science results were 16% at Olive Grove and 36% statewide, a 20-point gap. Olive Grove’s district test results and SchoolDigger rank and stars were not provided; the nearby school is in a different district and is a special-education school, so comparisons should be read cautiously.

Attendance has improved substantially: chronic absenteeism fell from 25% in 2022–2023 to 6% in 2025–2026, while the state rate fell from 25% to 18%; Olive Grove is now 12 points below the state and 39 points below the nearby school. Across that period, Olive Grove’s math and science scores each rose by about 1 point, but the state improved more, leaving its gaps wider by 3 points in math and 5 in science. Graduation was 81% versus 88% statewide in 2025–2026, while dropout was 9%, down 19 points from the prior year. Olive Grove’s student-teacher ratio was 15.9 in 2024–2025, compared with 6.5 nearby; in that school year, 58% of Olive Grove students were free/reduced lunch eligible, versus 88% at the nearby school.