Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary

Located at 7530 East Arnett St., in Downey, California, Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary is a big elementary school that works with 736 students (grades K through 3), one of the schools within Downey Unified. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary sits 58% above that benchmark.

Within Downey Unified, which oversees 21 schools and 22,405 students, Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary logs that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (90%). The remainder breaks down as 4% White, 4% Asian, 2% Black. By comparison, Los Angeles County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary has 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 23.0:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 76% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary ranks in the top 10% of California public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 34.1%; Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary posts 68.6%, +34.5 points above that line.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Los Angeles County indicate the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Los Angeles County runs 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), of which Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Old River Elementary, roughly 0.6 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary ranks 1st on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 43.9%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Williams (Spencer V.) Elementary has remained close to its prior level, going from 729 students in 2018 to 736 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 25.1:1 in 2018 to 23.0:1 today.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.