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If you had an hour of school board time for Rice (William) Elementary, what would you bring up?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
887
Elementary
DISTRICT 825 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SANTA MARIA-BONITA·NCES 060558009321
Rice (William) Elementary
700 East Vickie Ave., Santa Maria, CA 93454 · (805) 361-7740 · Santa Barbara County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL887 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 10% of California public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B-Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded California public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
22.0:1
40 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 21.7:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
95%
844 students
DISTRICT 93% · STATE 65%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 178 | 20% |
| Grade 1 | 116 | 13% |
| Grade 2 | 120 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 123 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 110 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 122 | 14% |
| Grade 6 | 118 | 13% |
This year's kindergarten class (178) is 51% larger than its 6th grade class (118).
Student demographics
9%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 9% · STATE 62% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
CAASPP 2024-25 . % met or exceeded standardEnglish Language Arts
18.1%
CA avg 49.1% . -3.9pp since 2014
Math
14.4%
CA avg 37.7% . -1.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 18 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 14 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all California schools, those numbers are about 49 and 38. Reading and writing scores are down about 4 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 2 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 5.2% | 12.9% | 22.3% | 59.6% |
| Math | 3.9% | 10.5% | 22.1% | 63.5% |
Share of tested students at each CAASPP level. Each student counts in one level, so a row adds to about 100%.
CAASPP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 18.1% | 14.4% |
| 2023-24 | 18.8% | 12.7% |
| 2022-23 | 19.5% | 13.6% |
| 2021-22 | 17.7% | 10.2% |
| 2018-19 | 34.7% | 30.6% |
| 2017-18 | 38.5% | 35.7% |
| 2016-17 | 25.6% | 26.9% |
| 2015-16 | 28.0% | 22.0% |
| 2014-15 | 22.0% | 16.0% |
% met or exceeded standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: CAASPP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
16.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
23.8%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 16% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 24% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among California's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Rice (William) Elementary
Rice (William) Elementary's state test result (16.0% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice (William) Elementary this school | 887 | 95.2% | 16.0% |
| Miller (Isaac) Elementary Santa Maria | 883 | 94.5% | 21.1% |
| Ontiveros (Juan Pacifico) Elementary Santa Maria | 869 | 94.2% | 38.7% |
| Oakley (Calvin C.) Elementary Santa Maria | 849 | 95.9% | 18.4% |
| Kamala Elementary Oxnard | 842 | 95.8% | 24.1% |
| Adam (William Laird) Elementary Santa Maria | 874 | 96.8% | 18.2% |
Matched among California elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Rice (William) Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Santa Barbara County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 16.0% | #4,886 of 5,151 | #64 of 66 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 14.4% | #4,799 of 5,172 ▲ 62 | #60 of 66 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 18.1% | #4,940 of 5,172 ▼ 121 | #63 of 66 ▼ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +2.3pp | #2,525 of 5,116 | #26 of 66 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 887 | #186 of 5,915 | #5 of 75 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 22.0:1 | #2,169 of 5,352 | #43 of 63 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 8.8% | #5,006 of 5,354 | #53 of 63 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 95.2% | #429 of 5,625 | #11 of 70 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -1.7% | #3,666 of 3,837 | #45 of 47 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
887
+28 (+3%) vs 2020
+31% since 1990-91, when it was 679
Student : Teacher
22.0:1
was 24.5:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 887 | 40.4 | 22.0:1 | 95% (844) |
| 2023-24 | 913 | 41.9 | 21.8:1 | 94% (859) |
| 2022-23 | 913 | 37.9 | 24.1:1 | 87% (793) |
| 2020-21 | 859 | 35 | 24.5:1 | 84% (723) |
| 2017-18 | 902 | 38 | 23.7:1 | 90% (816) |
| 2015-16 | 922 | 35 | 26.3:1 | 88% (811) |
| 2010-11 | 820 | N/A | N/A | 82% (670) |
| 2000-01 | 872 | 43 | 20.3:1 | 69% (598) |
| 1990-91 | 679 | 25 | 27.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Rice (William) Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 2% (902 to 887); teachers up 6% (38 to 40.4).
About Rice (William) Elementary
Rice (William) Elementary is listed by the National Center for Education Statistics as an elementary school in Santa Maria, California. It enrolled 887 students in kindergarten through 6 for the 2024-25 school year. Statewide, elementary schools in California average about 465 students each.
Rice (William) Elementary is a school in Santa Maria-Bonita. The district has 21 schools and 17,408 students.
The large majority of students at Rice (William) Elementary, 95%, are Hispanic. The school's Hispanic share is 47 points above the 48% share among Santa Barbara County residents. Rice (William) Elementary has a diversity index of 9%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Federal staffing data show 40.4 full-time-equivalent teachers at Rice (William) Elementary and a ratio of 22.0:1. Elementary schools in California average about 22.3:1, a similar figure. The count of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch equals 95% of enrollment. The gap from the 68% average for public schools in Santa Barbara County is 27 points.
Rice (William) Elementary is graded D by allk12, scoring above 10% of California public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
On BeatsExpectations, Rice (William) Elementary is 7.8 points below its prediction, a result in the middle 80% of California schools.
Federal survey data for Santa Barbara County show that median household income is about $98,161, 37% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Rice (William) Elementary is among the 129 public schools in Santa Barbara County.
The nearest other public school, Alvin Elementary, is about 0.5 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 20.7%; Rice (William) Elementary's is 16.0%, ranking 7th of 9.
Federal records code the school's setting as City: Mid-size.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, Rice (William) Elementary went from 859 students to 887. The ratio was 24.5:1 in 2020-21 and 22.0:1 in 2024-25.
Posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater are welcome on this page. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Santa Barbara County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
443,701
Census ACS
Median income
$98,161
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
37%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
129
66,191 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Santa Maria-Bonita
- JIMENEZ ROBERTO AND DR. FRANCISCO ELEMENTARYElementary · 1,177 students
- Bruce (Robert) ElementaryElementary · 1,050 students
- Alvin ElementaryElementary · 998 students
- Fesler (Isaac) Junior HighMiddle · 974 students
- Tunnell (Martin Luther) ElementaryElementary · 917 students
- Kunst (Tommie) Junior HighMiddle · 912 students
Other schools in Santa Maria
- Santa Maria HighHigh · 3,143 students
- Pioneer Valley HighHigh · 3,080 students
- Ernest Righetti HighHigh · 2,416 students
- JIMENEZ ROBERTO AND DR. FRANCISCO ELEMENTARYElementary · 1,177 students
- Bruce (Robert) ElementaryElementary · 1,050 students
- Alvin ElementaryElementary · 998 students
Nearby schools
- Alvin Elementary0.5 mi · 998
- Taylor (Ida Redmond) Elementary0.6 mi · 849
- Tunnell (Martin Luther) Elementary0.7 mi · 917
- El Camino Junior High0.8 mi · 830
- Fesler (Isaac) Junior High0.9 mi · 974
- Bruce (Robert) Elementary0.9 mi · 1,050
Frequently asked questions
About Rice (William) ElementaryHow large is Rice (William) Elementary?
Rice (William) Elementary enrolls approximately 887 students in grades KG-06.
What grades does Rice (William) Elementary serve?
Rice (William) Elementary serves grades KG-06.
How many teachers does Rice (William) Elementary have?
Rice (William) Elementary employs 40 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 22.0:1.
What is the student diversity at Rice (William) Elementary?
Student demographics at Rice (William) Elementary are roughly 2% White, 95% Hispanic, 0% Asian, 2% Two or more.
What district is Rice (William) Elementary in?
Rice (William) Elementary is part of Santa Maria-Bonita.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.