Failure is common in many South County schools.
At least when it comes to reading. Less than 50 percent of students know how to perform at grade level. Across Santa Barbara County, the figure is 60 percent, compared to the statewide average of 47 percent.
To understand why this is the case, one would have to dig through a thicket of history – literacy instruction is politicized, education schools give teachers the wrong tools, and a pendulum swings between what works and what doesn’t. (I wrote about this thicket in a previous article.)
But there is a root in science behind it, because teaching reading is really a science or a recipe that can be followed if teachers and schools have the right ingredients, the right cookware, and the right training.
And the consequences of fumbling that recipe before students enter third grade are real and ripple throughout the community: Nationwide, 70 percent of incarcerated people are illiterate. If students can’t read by third grade, the gap widens and the hope that they will succeed becomes less and less.
The Santa Barbara Reading Coalition wants Santa Barbara’s schools to be among the best in the state at producing proficient readers. To that end, the group has studied literacy in depth, meeting with educators, counselors and literacy leaders across the country.
Who are you? Concerned citizens from all walks of life, with the common goal of raising awareness and stoking the flames to make people aware of this low literacy rate and to help school districts and communities do something about it.
“Half of Santa Barbara’s children cannot read by the end of third grade,” the organization points out on its website. “That has to change!”
The coalition backs up its complaints with test results — in eight of the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s 12 elementary schools, fewer than 50 percent of students are reading at grade level.
This semester, Star Renaissance Assessment results show that only 42 percent of students tested in grades 1 through 6 met or exceeded grade level standards. That leaves 1,233 students who did not.
“Socioeconomic disadvantage doesn’t matter,” said Ruth Green, a former state education board member and co-founder of the coalition.
At Franklin Elementary School, for example, about 90 percent of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged and 32 percent are English learners. And yet, in the 2023-2024 state assessment, nearly 51 percent met or exceeded state standards in reading.
This matches or exceeds the same levels in schools with a lower proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
At Santa Barbara Charter School, where only 21 percent are socioeconomically disadvantaged students, 51 percent also met grade standards.
In other words, blaming socioeconomic status is an excuse. All students, the coalition argues, can learn to read with the right approach, regardless of their background.
According to Green, the right approach is science-based reading instruction—known as the “science of reading”—based on specific instructional principles backed by research.
“Franklin has championed the science of reading, and her principal is on board, so they see the needle moving,” Green said.
Peabody Charter School is the district’s golden child when it comes to reading grades. The school introduced reading instruction and teacher training (as part of LETRS, a Lexia Learning early literacy program) in 2022.
At Peabody, 70 percent of students — nearly half of whom are socioeconomically disadvantaged — met or exceeded state standards in reading.
“When we tell people that less than half the kids here (in Santa Barbara) can read, a lot of them don’t believe it,” Green said.
The coalition wants to make the push for the science of reading a local movement. They don’t want a “contentious relationship” with school districts, Green said; They want to support schools and the community with “proven best practices.”
“I don’t give a shit about my community,” said Andrew Salzman, another of the coalition’s 11 members. Salzman has lived in Santa Barbara for four years and is the mother of a 15-year-old who attends Santa Barbara High School. “I don’t give a shit that 50 percent of kids can’t read.”
“Literacy impacts employment and incarceration rates, which in turn impacts the entire community – it’s time to address it and do something about it. It’s a journey worth taking.”
Other members agree. “Santa Barbara is exceptional in many ways,” said Steve Epstein, a longtime local and active member of the community. “But our reading grades are exceptionally poor.”
However, South County schools are starting to make an effort.
The Goleta Union and Hope elementary school districts recently made the transition to science education with an emphasis on teacher training. Nearly 64 percent of students at Goleta Union and 71 percent at Hope meet or exceed grade standards in reading.
In Santa Barbara Unified, a cohort of 35 teachers and language and literacy coaches are in the midst of a two-year, $70,000 LETRS training program to give teachers the skills they need to teach the fundamentals of literacy instruction mastery – which is then shared with other teachers through professional learning communities, staff meetings and individual coaching throughout the year.
The coalition wants to ensure that literacy becomes a regular priority. Not a one-train-and-done phenomenon.
“It’s a human right to read,” said Cheri Rae, dyslexia advocate and coalition member. As an advocate, she has seen 30-year-olds crying over their inability to read, which was affecting their lives and employment opportunities. “That’s the often unspoken tragedy of it – people who can’t read, what happens to them?”
Green noted that the science is there, but the argument over reading instruction has become overly politicized over the years.
Screw politics, she said.
“Let’s fix this. We normalize failure. I would love nothing more than to see South County have the best performing districts in the state.”
Learn more about the Santa Barbara Reading Coalition on their website.
