Garfield Elementary

As a medium-sized elementary school in Oakland, California, Garfield Elementary teaches 454 students from grades K through 5, operated by Oakland Unified.

Oakland Unified comprises 84 schools with combined enrollment of 33,973 students; Garfield Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Garfield Elementary shows that 62% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Beyond that, the school reports 16% Asian, 15% Black, 5% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 23% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 24.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 98% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Alameda County (around 49%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Garfield Elementary tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 21.1% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 17.0%.

In the broader community, ACS estimates for Alameda County put median household earnings sit near $129,367, 52% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. In all, Alameda County runs 394 public schools (combined enrollment of about 210,511 students), of which Garfield Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Community School for Creative Education, roughly 0.2 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Garfield Elementary at 3rd of 6; the average score across the group is 16.1%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Garfield Elementary has contracted 31%, going from 654 students in 2018 to 454 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 46% to 62% across the same window. Class-load math has pulled in: from 26.2:1 in 2018 to 24.5:1 in 2025.

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