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Welcome to the Kester Avenue Elementary community. What's one thing that would make Kester Avenue Elementary even better?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
886
Elementary
DISTRICT 404 · STATE 465
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LOS ANGELES UNIFIED·NCES 062271003115
Kester Avenue Elementary
5353 Kester Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91411 · (818) 787-6751 · Los Angeles County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL886 STUDENTS
A+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 96% of California public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- C+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
24.6:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 20.0:1 · STATE 22.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
47%
416 students
DISTRICT 84% · 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 | 193 | 22% |
| Grade 1 | 138 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 132 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 164 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 124 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 135 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (193) is 43% larger than its 5th grade class (135).
Student demographics
75%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 45% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on published attendance-zone data from Los Angeles Unified. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
CAASPP 2024-25 . % met or exceeded standardEnglish Language Arts
77.8%
CA avg 49.1% . +10.8pp since 2014
Math
72.6%
CA avg 37.7% . +8.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the CAASPP, California's statewide test, about 78 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 73 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 9 points.
Performance levels, 2024-25
| Subject | Standard Exceeded | Standard Met | Standard Nearly Met | Standard Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Language Arts | 56.1% | 21.7% | 12.2% | 10.0% |
| Math | 51.1% | 21.6% | 15.0% | 12.3% |
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 | 77.8% | 72.6% |
| 2023-24 | 73.9% | 71.5% |
| 2022-23 | 75.9% | 67.2% |
| 2021-22 | 77.6% | 70.1% |
| 2018-19 | 82.0% | 72.3% |
| 2017-18 | 73.3% | 65.7% |
| 2016-17 | 69.2% | 66.0% |
| 2015-16 | 73.0% | 64.0% |
| 2014-15 | 67.0% | 64.0% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of CA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
74.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
52.0%
based on CA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+22.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 74% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 52% typical for California schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 22 points, placing it in California's top 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 Kester Avenue Elementary
Kester Avenue Elementary's state test result (74.1% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kester Avenue Elementary this school | 886 | 47.0% | 74.1% |
| Southport Elementary West Sacramento | 785 | 50.4% | 38.9% |
| Benjamin Franklin Elementary Riverside | 767 | 48.9% | 62.6% |
| Stonegate Elementary West Sacramento | 928 | 41.9% | 45.0% |
| Foxboro Elementary Vacaville | 717 | 47.4% | 33.8% |
| Garin Elementary Brentwood | 785 | 41.5% | 50.6% |
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 Kester Avenue Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In California | In Los Angeles County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 74.1% | #461 of 5,151 | #100 of 1,126 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 72.6% | #497 of 5,172 ▲ 32 | #108 of 1,129 ▲ 12 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 77.8% | #367 of 5,172 ▲ 147 | #88 of 1,129 ▲ 27 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +1.3pp | #2,907 of 5,116 | #717 of 1,116 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 886 | #187 of 5,915 | #28 of 1,300 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 24.6:1 | #4,170 of 5,352 | #947 of 1,213 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 74.6% | #150 of 5,354 | #20 of 1,214 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 47.0% | #4,047 of 5,625 | #1,018 of 1,276 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -13.3% | #2,250 of 3,837 | #651 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
886
-60 (-6%) vs 2020
+17% since 1990-91, when it was 755
Student : Teacher
24.6:1
was 24.3:1
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 | 886 | 36 | 24.6:1 | 47% (416) |
| 2023-24 | 882 | 35 | 25.2:1 | 45% (400) |
| 2022-23 | 836 | 33 | 25.3:1 | 48% (399) |
| 2020-21 | 946 | 39 | 24.3:1 | 51% (484) |
| 2017-18 | 1,022 | 40 | 25.6:1 | 53% (539) |
| 2015-16 | 977 | 38 | 25.7:1 | 50% (488) |
| 2010-11 | 986 | N/A | N/A | 48% (470) |
| 2000-01 | 924 | 46 | 20.1:1 | 63% (584) |
| 1990-91 | 755 | 28 | 27.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Kester Avenue Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 13% (1,022 to 886); teachers down 10% (40 to 36).
About Kester Avenue Elementary
This page covers Kester Avenue Elementary, a large elementary school in Van Nuys, California. The school has 886 students in 2024-25 across kindergarten through 5. Elementary schools in California average about 465 students, which makes this school 91% bigger than average.
Los Angeles Unified operates 784 schools. Combined enrollment is 406,887 students.
Hispanic students account for 34% of enrollment at Kester Avenue Elementary, more than any other group. The remaining students are 28% White, 20% multiracial, 13% Asian, and 5% Black. Among people living in Los Angeles County, the Hispanic share is about 48%. The diversity index for Kester Avenue Elementary is 75%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
On staff are 36 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 24.6:1. Statewide, elementary schools in California average 22.3:1. Kester Avenue Elementary has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 47%. It compares with 70% for public schools in Los Angeles County.
Kester Avenue Elementary earns an A+ on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 96% of California public elementary schools.
Given its lunch-eligibility share, the predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results for Kester Avenue Elementary is 52.0%. It actually posts 74.1%, which is 22.0 points higher and in the top 10% of California schools.
For the population of Los Angeles County, the median household earns about $90,112 a year, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 36% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 10%. Across Los Angeles County, 2,244 public schools serve about 1,265,907 students.
Van Nuys Middle is about 0.4 miles away, making it the nearest public school. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Ranked by average proficiency, Kester Avenue Elementary places 1st out of 7 schools in its immediate area.
Federal data place Kester Avenue Elementary in the City: Large locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
A 6% drop took enrollment from 946 in 2020-21 to 886 in 2024-25.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. You can also rate the school on this page.
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 Los Angeles Unified
- Grover Cleveland Charter HighHigh · 2,719 students
- North Hollywood Senior HighHigh · 2,444 students
- Phineas Banning Senior HighHigh · 2,422 students
- San Pedro Senior HighHigh · 2,398 students
- Venice Senior HighHigh · 2,293 students
- James A. Garfield Senior HighHigh · 2,237 students
Other schools in Van Nuys
- Van Nuys Senior HighHigh · 1,969 students
- Ulysses S. Grant Senior HighHigh · 1,774 students
- Robert Fulton College PreparatoryHigh · 1,229 students
- Kittridge Street ElementaryElementary · 768 students
- Van Nuys MiddleMiddle · 726 students
- Valerio Street ElementaryElementary · 645 students
Nearby schools
- Van Nuys Middle0.4 mi · 726
- Ivy Bound Acad of Math Sci and Tech Charter Mid0.7 mi · 85
- Hesby Oaks Leadership Charter0.9 mi · 494
- Sylvan Park Elementary1.1 mi · 643
- Chandler Elementary1.2 mi · 450
- Sherman Oaks Elementary Charter1.2 mi · 511
Frequently asked questions
About Kester Avenue ElementaryHow many students attend Kester Avenue Elementary?
Kester Avenue Elementary enrolls approximately 886 students in grades KG-05.
Is Kester Avenue Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Kester Avenue Elementary is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Kester Avenue Elementary have?
Kester Avenue Elementary employs 36 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 24.6:1.
How diverse is Kester Avenue Elementary?
Kester Avenue Elementary reports a student body of 28% White, 34% Hispanic, 5% Black, 13% Asian, 20% Two or more.
Is Kester Avenue Elementary public or private?
Kester Avenue Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Los Angeles Unified.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.