Cleveland Elementary, Santa Barbara CA

Original Research by School Decision on Cleveland Elementary

Cleveland Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Santa Barbara, a coastal city where a substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch and a very large majority are Hispanic. The school sits in a high-cost housing market where home values are well above the California average and rents are notably elevated, shaped by Santa Barbara's mix of tourism, education, healthcare, finance, and defense-sector employment anchored by UC Santa Barbara and Cottage Health.

The academic picture shows consistent and substantial gaps across tested grades in both English language arts and mathematics. In third grade, proficiency in math sits well below grade-level standard, and fourth-grade math proficiency is lower still. Fifth grade shows the most serious performance drop, with proficiency in both math and English language arts falling to low levels; the school's science result at fifth grade also reflects limited proficiency. Sixth grade shows a partial recovery in English language arts but remains below typical benchmarks in math. When proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades are averaged together, Cleveland sits below the midpoint of district performance across Santa Barbara County, a position that reflects the depth of the academic challenge the school faces. No prior-year data is available for comparison, so trends cannot be assessed.

Enrollment is small for an elementary school, with roughly equal numbers of students across most grades and a slight bulge in fourth grade. The student population is economically disadvantaged on a substantial scale, with three in four students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. Racial and ethnic composition is heavily concentrated, with more than nine in ten students identifying as Hispanic.

Santa Barbara Unified, the parent district, undertook a major shift in reading instruction beginning in 2023-2024, replacing a decades-old "Whole Language" or "Balanced Learning" approach with a "science of reading" model using the Wit & Wisdom curriculum and Fundations structured literacy program. This change affects every elementary family and represents the district's effort to rebuild early literacy from the ground up. The district also added a new junior high math curriculum and the IXL digital platform in response to concerns about stagnant math achievement. A parent may want to look into how these broader district shifts are being implemented and resourced at Cleveland specifically, given the school's current proficiency picture.

The city itself is pedestrian-friendly with downtown civic anchors including the County Courthouse and its Sunken Gardens, a public library, and transit service through the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District. Recent development has been concentrated on affordable housing infill projects downtown, with the state finding the city's housing element in substantial compliance in early 2024. For families, this context means access to walkable downtown civic space and a city actively working to address housing affordability, though Santa Barbara remains a high-cost market overall.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 51% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 45% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 32% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 43% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 48% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 433%

School 33% · District 49% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 42% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 52% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 31% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

This schoolSanta Barbara Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.