Santa Maria High: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Santa Maria posts 30% meeting the standard and 8.8% exceeding it, against 36% and 15.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 43 | 9% | 30% | 88.0% | 59.2% | 21.9% | 3.5% |
| CA average · High School | 44 | 16% | 36% | 87.6% | 35.4% | 30.2% | 3.6% |
Santa Maria High scores 43 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 45th percentile of 2,160 California high schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “30% proficient” and call it done. Santa Maria deserves a closer read. The school sits in Santa Maria, where three in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Slipped from the 54th to the 45th percentile since 2019.
This school hasn't fully recovered from the pandemic: 30% meet the standard today, versus 35% in 2019 — a gap worth asking about on a visit.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 45% | 28% | 28% | 43% | 45% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 24% | 12% | 10% | 14% | 16% |
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 30 are proficient by 11th grade → 88 graduate → 59 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Santa Maria High in Santa Maria, 43.0% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 44.3% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Santa Maria High trails its district average for low-income students by 1.2 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (14.4% Math proficient); Hispanic students (44.3% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 43.8 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 600 students tested.
7 of 16 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$911 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
At 3,143 students, this school is well above the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 24% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Santa Maria High a good high school?
What are Santa Maria High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Santa Maria High rank in California?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Santa Maria High?
How does Santa Maria High compare to other schools in Santa Maria?
How does Santa Maria High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 656 | 15% | 30% | 24% | 31% | 45% | −3 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 649 | 3% | 13% | 22% | 62% | 16% | −8 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 667 | 3% | 21% | 65% | 11% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 600 | 43.0% | −1 | +5 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 642 | 44.3% | −2 | +5 |
| English Learners | 133 | 0.8% | −3 | −10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Maria High ← | — | 43 | 8.8% | 30.1% | — | 3.5% |
| Pioneer Valley High | 2.3 mi | 43 | 11.1% | 35.7% | — | 4.3% |
| California average | — | 44 | 15.8% | 35.7% | — | 3.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 48 | 54 | #944 | 9.2% | 34.5% | 10.3% | 2.5% | — |
| 2022 | 42 | 44 | #1168 | 4.8% | 20.0% | 18.0% | 4.1% | — |
| 2023 | 41 | 43 | #1234 | 4.5% | 19.2% | 18.8% | 5.7% | — |
| 2024 | 43 | 49 | #1101 | 6.2% | 28.6% | 18.6% | 4.0% | — |
| 2025 | 43 | 45 | #1184 | 8.8% | 30.1% | 21.9% | 3.5% | — |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 9.6% | 21.7% | +12.1pp |
| Male | 10.0% | 21.6% | +11.6pp |
| Black/African American | 21.4% | — | — |
| White | 5.9% | 16.0% | +10.1pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 9.7% | 21.6% | +11.9pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 18.7% | 31.3% | +12.6pp |
| English Learners | 14.9% | 30.1% | +15.2pp |
| Foster Youth | 52.9% | 47.6% | -5.3pp |
| Homeless | 11.3% | 24.2% | +12.9pp |
| Military-Connected | 7.0% | 26.8% | +19.8pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 9.8% | 22.1% | +12.3pp |
| All Students | 9.8% | 21.7% | +11.9pp |
SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction