Santa Barbara Unified School District’s four junior high schools are still struggling to get back to state test scores seen before the pandemic, which is a statewide trend.

Two schools saw a decrease in students meeting and exceeding standards from the year before, one school’s scores stayed consistent with their scores from last year, and only one saw an increase in students meeting and exceeding standards.

Each year, students from 3rd through 8th grade and 11th grade take the state’s Smarter Balanced Test. The test evaluates students’ understanding of math and English language arts/literacy (ELA).

Out of SBUSD’s four middle schools, La Colina Junior High saw the highest scores this year and saw an increase in students meeting or exceeding standards from 2022.

While La Colina’s scores aren’t where they were in 2019, they have improved since 2022.

La Colina Principal Jennifer Foster said she was surprised by the school's high scores because she feels that they are still recovering from the pandemic. 

Foster also said that the improvement validated new initiatives at La Colina such as implementing universal access. This means instead of having honors classes or college prep classes, students are heterogeneously grouped into core classes for English, math, social studies, and science. 

Additionally, Foster told Noozhawk that teachers have been working on rebuilding academic stamina amongst students. 

“We have invested a lot of time in getting them used to what it is to be a student again, and building up academic stamina,” Foster said. “We're always looking for ways to build the skills and practices in our students that are going to help prepare them to be successful in high school.”

La Colina test results also show an increase in the number of students who went from not meeting the standards to nearly meeting the standards. 

“We are really happy with the results. It really validates not only the hard work and commitment of our teachers, but our students,” Foster said. 

Not all of SBUSD’s junior high schools have seen test score improvements from 2022.

Santa Barbara Junior High and La Cumbre Junior High haven’t gotten back to the scores they had before the pandemic and saw a continued decrease in students meeting or exceeding standards. 

In 2019, 45.41% of students at Santa Barbara Junior High met or exceeded standards in English and 39.42% met or exceeded math standards. This year, 26.25% of students met or exceeded standards in English and 22.08% did so in math, which is a decrease from 2022. 

Similarly, La Cumbre Junior High hasn’t gotten back to their pre pandemic scores. In 2019, 49.90% of La Cumbre students met and exceeded standards in English and 34.91% met or exceeded standards in math. This year, 35.29% met or exceeded standards in English and 21% met or exceeded standards in math. Both subjects saw a slight decrease from 2022.

Goleta Valley Junior High saw a slight decrease in scores from 2019 but have stayed relatively consistent throughout the pandemic. In 2019, 62.15% of Goleta Valley students met or exceeded standards in English and 53.95% met or exceeded standards in math. 

This year, 55.51% of students met or exceeded standards in English and 49.64% met or exceeded standards in math, while this is a decrease from 2019, Goleta Valley saw less of a decrease than other schools in the area. 

In SBUSD’s junior highs, and across the state, more students are meeting or exceeding standards in English than in math. 

Foster said it was easier for families to keep up with reading and writing at home but not as easier to keep up with subjects like algebra.

“The grade level standards in math are pretty rigorous,” Foster said. “Students' experiences during COVID closure with math were highly varied, I think more highly variable than they were like in English language arts and reading comprehension.”

Foster said that for students who are struggling in math, they have provided what they call “just in time support.” With this, teachers can evaluate what re-teaching students need to go through if they perform poorly on an assessment. 

“The learning keeps happening and keeps going,” Foster said. “It doesn't stop because you didn't learn it. So doing that along the way, and being able to provide that support, I think is something that has really helped us with math especially.”

In many schools, including La Colina, students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged were not meeting or nearly meeting standards more than students who aren’t economically disadvantaged, according to state testing data.

One way Foster told Noozhawk that they’re trying to bridge that gap is through the Program for Effective Access to College (PEAC) which provides free after school tutoring from 3-6 p.m. four days a week.

“That's definitely great for parents of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, who often have two or three jobs and may not be able to come pick their kids up but they now have that supervised tutoring center,” Foster said.

Foster told Noozhawk that the Smarter Balanced test results are an opportunity to look at what needs to improve and celebrate the hard work of students and teachers. 

“It's hard, just the stamina and the confidence necessary to demonstrate that learning and that level of success,” Foster said. “That's, that's the biggest reward of all, that the students get to celebrate that success.”

Santa Barbara-area high schools in the district overall had higher test scores this year than last year, but are still below pre-pandemic levels of students meeting or exceeding English and math standards.

Want to know more about how SBUSD’s high schools did on the state assessment? Read Noozhawk's story here.