Ernie Pyle Elementary

As a compact elementary school in Bellflower, California, Ernie Pyle Elementary serves 341 students from grades K through 6, run under Bellflower Unified. Compared to the state average of about 465 students per school, that is 27% below typical.

Within Bellflower Unified, which oversees 15 schools and 9,573 students, Ernie Pyle Elementary is one campus in the system.

On the student-mix side, Ernie Pyle Elementary records that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 72% of enrollment; the rest consists of 13% Black, 9% Asian, 4% multiracial, 3% White. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 48%.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Ernie Pyle Elementary has 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 21.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 81% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Los Angeles County runs at roughly 70%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Ernie Pyle Elementary sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 31.3%; this one delivers 35.1%.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Los Angeles County shows the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Los Angeles County's 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), Ernie Pyle Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Bellflower High is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Ernie Pyle Elementary. On composite proficiency, Ernie Pyle Elementary comes 3rd of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 32.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a bedroom-community area.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 31%: 496 students in 2018 compared to 341 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 23.6:1 in 2018 to 21.0:1 today.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.