Letter: Santa Barbara Unified’s progress deserves recognition

Your November 1 article about Santa Barbara Unified presents an incomplete picture of our District s progress. As President of the Board of Education, I believe our community deserves a balanced accounting of our accomplishments and the challenges that remain. The article s characterization of student achievement growth as stagnant is particularly misleading. In fact, Santa Barbara Unified s academic improvement has substantially outpaced both countywide and statewide gains. Since 2022, the District s reported California School Dashboard results have improved 20.1 points in English language arts and 28.9 points in mathematics, compared with statewide gains of 4.7 and 12.8 points, respectively. Estimated countywide results were essentially unchanged in English and improved 6.4 points in math. These Dashboard points measure how far students scores are above or below the proficiency standard on average, rather than percentage increases. English learner progress moved two level