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Alumni: what's one memory from Garfield Elementary that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
455
Elementary
DISTRICT 503 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MONTEBELLO UNIFIED·NCES 062547003797
Garfield Elementary
7425 South Garfield Ave., Bell Gardens, CA 90201 · (562) 927-1915 · Los Angeles County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL455 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 29% of California public elementary schools
- C-Test 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.
- BThree-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
21.0:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 20.9:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
88%
401 students
DISTRICT 86% · 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 | 80 | 18% |
| Grade 1 | 64 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 71 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 88 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 71 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 81 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (80) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (81).
Student demographics
4%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 8% · 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
29.5%
CA avg 49.1% . +10.5pp since 2014
Math
25.8%
CA avg 37.7% . +9.8pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 30 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 26 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all California schools, those numbers are about 49 and 38. Reading and writing scores are up about 11 points since 2014, while math scores are up about 10 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 10.7% | 18.9% | 20.1% | 50.4% |
| Math | 11.9% | 13.9% | 21.3% | 52.9% |
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 | 29.5% | 25.8% |
| 2023-24 | 24.9% | 23.0% |
| 2022-23 | 25.7% | 22.4% |
| 2021-22 | 28.2% | 18.4% |
| 2020-21 | 18.1% | 12.6% |
| 2018-19 | 24.3% | 29.4% |
| 2017-18 | 27.9% | 27.2% |
| 2016-17 | 21.3% | 22.2% |
| 2015-16 | 21.0% | 16.0% |
| 2014-15 | 19.0% | 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
26.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
27.9%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-1.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 26% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 28% 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 Garfield Elementary
Garfield Elementary's state test result (26.1% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Elementary this school | 455 | 88.1% | 26.1% |
| McKinley Elementary El Centro | 456 | 87.1% | 38.8% |
| Rio Plaza Elementary Oxnard | 455 | 88.4% | 16.1% |
| Poplar Elementary Fontana | 450 | 88.2% | 32.5% |
| Monson-Sultana Elementary Sultana | 440 | 87.7% | 40.0% |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary El Centro | 445 | 90.1% | 31.9% |
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 Garfield Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Los Angeles County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 26.1% | #3,956 of 5,151 | #975 of 1,126 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 25.8% | #3,684 of 5,172 ▲ 155 | #941 of 1,129 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 29.5% | #4,036 of 5,172 ▲ 273 | #972 of 1,129 ▲ 36 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +4.4pp | #1,844 of 5,116 | #512 of 1,116 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 455 | #2,970 of 5,915 | #605 of 1,300 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 21.0:1 | #1,487 of 5,352 | #446 of 1,213 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 4.3% | #5,231 of 5,354 | #1,172 of 1,214 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 88.1% | #1,313 of 5,625 | #507 of 1,276 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -37.3% | #214 of 3,837 | #108 of 947 |
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
455
-96 (-17%) vs 2020
-51% since 1990-91, when it was 932
Student : Teacher
21.0:1
was 22.0:1
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 | 455 | 21.7 | 21.0:1 | 88% (401) |
| 2023-24 | 499 | 29.7 | 16.8:1 | 77% (384) |
| 2022-23 | 499 | 26.7 | 18.7:1 | 84% (418) |
| 2020-21 | 551 | 25 | 22.0:1 | 85% (466) |
| 2017-18 | 726 | 25.1 | 29.0:1 | 79% (577) |
| 2015-16 | 757 | 25 | 30.3:1 | 84% (635) |
| 2010-11 | 811 | N/A | N/A | 68% (553) |
| 2000-01 | 992 | 48 | 20.7:1 | 94% (937) |
| 1990-91 | 932 | 35 | 26.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Garfield Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 37% (726 to 455); teachers down 13% (25.1 to 21.7).
About Garfield Elementary
Garfield Elementary is a medium-sized elementary school. Its address is in Bell Gardens, California. Classes run from kindergarten through 5, and the school has 455 students.
The Montebello Unified system has 29 schools and 19,149 students.
Most students at Garfield Elementary are Hispanic: 98% of enrollment. For comparison, the population of Los Angeles County is roughly 48% Hispanic. Garfield Elementary has a diversity index of 4%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Its 21.7 full-time-equivalent teachers give the school a ratio of 21.0:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in California is 22.3:1, higher than at this school. The school's lunch program data list 88% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The rate at public schools in Los Angeles County averages 70%, lower than here.
allk12 grades Garfield Elementary a C. The grade compares the school only with California public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate on state tests with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. For Garfield Elementary, the prediction is 27.9% and the result is 26.1%.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Los Angeles County show that median household income is about $90,112, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of people live in poverty. Federal data list 2,244 public schools in Los Angeles County, with a combined enrollment of about 1,265,907.
The nearest other public school, Bell Gardens Intermediate, is about 0.5 miles away. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Garfield Elementary. Of the 9 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Garfield Elementary is 5th on average proficiency.
The NCES locale for Garfield Elementary is Suburb: Large, which covers schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Garfield Elementary saw enrollment fall 17% between 2020-21 and 2024-25. The ratio was 22.0:1 in 2020-21 and 21.0:1 in 2024-25.
To ask about school safety, transportation, and start times, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Los Angeles County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
9,808,667
Census ACS
Median income
$90,112
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
36%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
2,244
1,265,907 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Montebello Unified
- Schurr HighHigh · 2,121 students
- Bell Gardens HighHigh · 2,046 students
- Montebello HighHigh · 1,907 students
- Bell Gardens IntermediateMiddle · 790 students
- Greenwood ElementaryElementary · 746 students
- Montebello IntermediateMiddle · 733 students
Other schools in Bell Gardens
- Bell Gardens HighHigh · 2,046 students
- Bell Gardens IntermediateMiddle · 790 students
- Cesar E. Chavez ElementaryElementary · 702 students
- Suva IntermediateMiddle · 650 students
- Bell Gardens ElementaryElementary · 624 students
- Suva ElementaryElementary · 562 students
Other Garfield Elementary schools
51 other US public schools in 21 states are named Garfield Elementary. Garfield Elementary is the 13th largest of the 52.
- Garfield ElementaryClovis, CA · 610 students
- Garfield ElementaryAlhambra, CA · 577 students
- Garfield ElementaryLong Beach, CA · 536 students
- Garfield ElementaryOakland, CA · 454 students
- Garfield ElementarySanta Ana, CA · 428 students
Nearby schools
- Bell Gardens Intermediate0.5 mi · 790
- Suva Intermediate0.6 mi · 650
- Suva Elementary0.6 mi · 562
- Cesar E. Chavez Elementary0.7 mi · 702
- Bell Gardens High0.8 mi · 2,046
- Bell Gardens Elementary1.0 mi · 624
Frequently asked questions
About Garfield ElementaryHow many students attend Garfield Elementary?
Garfield Elementary enrolls approximately 455 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Garfield Elementary serve?
Garfield Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Garfield Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Garfield Elementary is approximately 21.0:1 (22 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Garfield Elementary?
At Garfield Elementary, the student body is approximately 0% White, 98% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Who oversees Garfield Elementary?
Garfield Elementary is overseen by Montebello Unified in Los Angeles County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.