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One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary

Grades K-62024–25 data
Solid
66/100
Solid — 87th percentile statewide
#659 of 5,230 CA elementary schools
↓ 10.5 pts since 2019
💪 Strong All-Around

Strong across every dimension we measure — academics, growth, culture, and engagement. Above-average investment supporting strong, consistent results

School Climate
90% of students attend consistently
Chronic absenteeism: 9.7% (state avg: 18.1%)
"Attend consistently" means missing ≤10% of school days (the chronic absenteeism threshold).
Minimal suspensions
0.2% suspension rate (state avg: 1.7%)
Share of students who received at least one suspension during the year.
Source: California Dept. of Education, 2024–25See breakdown by student group →

What the numbers actually mean

Most rating sites report "66% proficient" and stop there. We think that number deserves more context — here's what we found when we looked deeper:

41.3% of students exceeded standard? Level 4 on California's CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment — the state defines four levels: Not Met, Nearly Met, Met, and Exceeded. while 25.1% met it. That exceeded rate is 19.7 points above the state average of 21.6%. That's 22.5 points above the Los Angeles Unified district average of 18.8%. The gap between "met" and "exceeded" can reveal how much a school's curriculum challenges students beyond proficiency.

One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary
41%
25%
California average
22%
21%
ExceededMet onlyBelow

We tracked the same cohort across years (2023 G3 → 2025 G5): students gained 86 scale score points? Pseudo-cohort tracking: we compare this school's G3 class from a prior year to the G5 class in the current year. Same school, same cohort aged forward. Uses SBAC scale scores designed for cross-year comparison., suggesting this school is adding measurable value over time.

SchoolScope cohort tracking · Same cohort tracked across years using SBAC scale scores — stronger than single-year cross-grade comparison

Chronic absenteeism? Missing 10%+ of enrolled school days. This is an official California Dashboard accountability indicator. is 9.7%, better than the state average of 18.1%.

Data you won't find on other sites: School-level per-pupil spending (not just district averages) · Current-year 2025 data direct from CDE · The exceeded vs. met split that most rating sites collapse into one number

Why the exceeded vs. met split matters → · Scope Score is SchoolScope's analysis of CDE data — not an official CDE rating. How we built this score (and what it misses) →

No single score captures a school. This is a starting point — visit, ask questions, trust your instincts.

What this score doesn't capture
  • — Teaching quality, classroom culture, and how teachers connect with students
  • — Arts, athletics, extracurriculars, and enrichment programs
  • — How well the school serves students with IEPs or gifted learners
  • — Parent community engagement and satisfaction
  • — Whether the curriculum aligns with your family's values

Most of our data is updated once per year and may reflect the prior school year.


Before you visit
Questions worth asking and signals worth checking
What to verify
87th percentile performance with 67% economically disadvantaged students — this is genuinely hard to achieve and reflects real school quality, not demographic advantage.
Who this school is great for
Students already performing at or above grade level — 41% of students here push past the standard
Families where consistent attendance and school culture matter — absenteeism is well below state average
Families looking for a low-discipline-incident environment
Worth checking: Students needing sustained momentum — proficiency dips between grades
These reflect data patterns, not guarantees. Your child's experience will depend on their teacher, grade, and classroom — things no score captures.

Score Factors
Academic Performance
Exceeded standard: 41.3%
19.7pp above state avg (state avg 21.6%)
43% weight

Exceeded rate gets the highest weight because it separates schools that clear the bar from those that raise it.

Limitation: Reflects tested students only — opt-out rates are not published by CDE.

CDE CAASPP 2025
Met or exceeded: 66.4%
23.5pp above state avg (state avg 42.9%)
22% weight

Overall proficiency provides the broadest measure of academic achievement.

Limitation: Combines ‘met’ and ‘exceeded’ — the gap between them matters more than either alone.

CDE CAASPP 2025
Growth (G3→G5): -2.0pp
Scores decline across grades (state avg -3.0pp)
15% weight

Growth measures what the school adds, not what families bring. When available, we track the same cohort across years for a stronger signal.

Limitation: Cohort tracking is school-level (not individual students) — transfers and demographic shifts can affect results. Falls back to cross-sectional comparison when historical data is unavailable.

SchoolScope derived
School Climate
Chronic absenteeism: 9.7%
8.5pp below state avg (state avg 18.1%)
10% weight

Absenteeism reflects school culture and family engagement — an official CA Dashboard accountability indicator.

Limitation: 10% threshold is the same for all schools regardless of demographics or geography.

CDE Attendance 2025
Suspension rate: 0.2%
1.5pp below state avg (state avg 1.7%)
5% weight

Low suspension rates correlate with positive school culture and restorative practices.

Limitation: Schools may differ in reporting practices — some underreport to improve metrics.

CDE Discipline 2025
EL proficiency (ELPAC): 30.4%
13.6pp above state avg (state avg 16.8%)
5% weight

ELPAC Level 4 measures how well a school develops English proficiency — a school-quality signal for its EL population.

Limitation: Only available for schools with English Learner students. Weight redistributes to other dimensions when not applicable.

CDE ELPAC 2025
We make judgment calls about what matters. We believe exceeded scores reveal more than proficiency alone, and that growth matters more than raw test results. Reasonable people could weight these differently — and that's fine. The factors above show exactly what we weighted and why, so you can decide where you agree and where you'd adjust. The elementary Scope Score uses 6 dimensions. How we built this score (and what it misses) →

The Scope Score emphasizes academic performance. It weights test proficiency, the exceeded-vs-met gap, and growth trajectory most heavily. If your family prioritizes arts, athletics, school culture, or teaching philosophy, this score captures some of that indirectly (through absenteeism and suspension) but not all of it. Different families should weight these dimensions differently — the score factors above let you see exactly what drives this number.

How to use this
  • Use for long-term academic patterns, not this week's classroom experience
  • Verify with a recent visit — scores can't capture a school mid-transformation
  • Combine with local context — talk to parents, attend a school board meeting, trust your gut

Community Profile
Context — not part of the Scope Score

Student demographics

Hispanic39.5%
White5.0%
Asian10.3%
Black31.8%
Other13.4%
GenderFemale 48.5%Male 51.5%
Resources & Access
Enrollment
359
121 below CA avg (~480)
Free/Reduced Lunch
67%
3pp above CA avg (64%)
Student-Teacher Ratio
22:1
1 more students per teacher than CA avg
Per-Pupil Spending
$22,454
District avg: $18,180 · CA avg: $14,815 · School-level · CDE ESSA
EL Proficiency (ELPAC)
30.4% Level 4
Share of English Learners reaching full proficiency
Teacher Salary Range
$60,420 – $122,706
District schedule · CA median ~$98K
At One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary in Gardena, 66.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 25.5 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (60.3% Math proficient); Hispanic students (67.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 6.0 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 131 students tested.
Equity Gaps
Absenteeism · Two or More Races+7.0pp
16.7% vs 9.7% overall · n=24
ELA · Hispanic−6.0pp
63.0% vs 69.0% overall · n=55
1 more gap by subject
Math Exceeded · Black−10.1pp
24.6% vs 34.8% overall · n=49

Subgroups with fewer than 15 students are excluded for privacy. Gaps of less than 3 percentage points are not shown.

Subgroup Proficiency
Low-Income131 tested
ELA 66.4%·Math 60.3%· +25.5pp vs district
Hispanic67 tested
ELA 67.2%·Math 64.2%· +26.1pp vs district
Black63 tested
ELA 65.1%·Math 57.1%· +29.3pp vs district

Weighted average across tested grades. Subgroups with fewer than 15 students excluded. Data: CDE CAASPP 2024-25.

Subgroup Growth by Grade
Change in proficiency from lowest tested grade. Shows which groups are gaining ground.

Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 10.1pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +4.5pp.

Subgroups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.

Funding Breakdown
Instruction 55%Support 40%Other 4%

Source: NCES F-33 (2019–2020) · Full district breakdown →

Neighborhood Context
Median Income
$83K
$2K below CA median
Median Home Value
$644K
$15K below CA median
Bachelor's+
25%
10pp below CA avg
Whole Child
Teacher experience, college/career readiness, and more. Context only — never part of the Scope Score.
Teacher Experience
17.9 years avg experience
17 teachers
Teacher Credentials
91% fully credentialed

Source: CDE SARC, 2024-25

Community Profile provides context about who attends this school and the resources available. These factors are never part of the Scope Score. Learn why →

5-year trend

7766'19'22'23'24'25
↓ 10.5 points since 2019
Rank: #776 → #875 → #1362 → #486 → #659Exceeded: 39% → 29% → 32% → 39% → 41%
2019 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · No testing 2020–21 (COVID) · Scope Score based on CAASPP, absenteeism & suspension data

How One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary compares

One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary vs. California averages — 2025 CAASPP data
MetricThis schoolCA avg
Exceeded Standard41.3%21.6%
Met or Exceeded66.4%42.9%
Chronic Absenteeism9.7%18.1%
Suspension Rate0.2%1.7%
Cohort GrowthAbove avgAverage

Source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025 · Analyzed by SchoolScope

Grade trajectory

How proficiency compares across grade levels this year (different students, same test year)

ELA Trajectory
68%78%G3G4G5
Math Trajectory
68%54%G3G4G5

ELA scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
3rd5038.0%30.0%20.0%12.0%68.0%
4th4953.1%8.2%30.6%8.2%61.2%
5th5044.0%34.0%10.0%12.0%78.0%
6th3534.3%34.3%22.9%8.6%68.6%

Math scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
3rd5038.0%30.0%20.0%12.0%68.0%
4th4940.8%28.6%22.4%8.2%69.4%
5th5034.0%20.0%34.0%12.0%54.0%
6th3525.7%31.4%25.7%17.1%57.1%

Science scores by grade

GradeTestedExceededMetNearly MetNot MetMet+Above
5th5020.0%36.0%40.0%4.0%56.0%

50 students tested · CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually like ELA/Math. Not included in the Scope Score. · Data source: CDE CAST 2025

Note: The primary zoned middle school (Robert E. Peary Middle, score 33) scores 33 points lower than this school. You may want to explore charter or magnet options for middle school.
K-12 Feeder Path
Elementary
One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street…
66/100
This school

Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.

Schools nearby

Private alternatives nearby

Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.

Manhattan Academy
Manhattan Beach Blvd · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-5 · 103 students
11:1Private3.8 mi
Hickory Tree School
Madrona Ave · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-5 · 67 students
14:1Private4.4 mi
Castle Elementary School
W 120th St · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-6 · 45 students
17:1Private2.6 mi
Rising Stars Academy
W Imperial Hwy · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-3 · 27 students
5:1Private2.9 mi
Limai Academy
Manhattan Beach Blvd · Nonsectarian · Grades Pre-K-8 · 17 students
3:1Private0.5 mi

Frequently asked questions

Is One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary a good elementary school?
One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary has a Scope Score of 66 out of 100, placing it in the 87th percentile of California elementary schools and ranked #659 statewide. 41.3% of students exceeded the state standard on the 2025 CAASPP assessment, which is 19.7 percentage points above the California average of 21.6%. The Scope Score weights five dimensions: the exceeded-vs-met split (45%), proficiency (25%), grade-level growth (15%), chronic absenteeism (10%), and suspension rate (5%). Data source: California Department of Education CAASPP 2025, analyzed by SchoolScope.
What are One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
On the 2025 CAASPP Smarter Balanced Assessment, 66.4% of students at One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary met or exceeded the state standard in ELA and Math combined, and 41.3% exceeded it. The gap between those numbers matters: 25.1% of students are at the proficiency floor, while 41.3% pushed past it. Most rating sites report only the combined "proficient" number. SchoolScope surfaces the exceeded-vs-met split because it reveals whether a school's curriculum challenges students beyond minimum proficiency or paces toward it. 298 student-subject combinations were assessed.
How does One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary rank in California?
One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary ranks #659 among California elementary schools by Scope Score, placing it in the 87th percentile. This ranking is based on a weighted composite of 2025 CAASPP test performance (exceeded and met rates), grade-level growth (Grade 3 to grade 5 growth), chronic absenteeism, and suspension rate. Unlike single-number ratings, the Scope Score shows what drives the ranking so parents can decide what matters most to their family. See full methodology.
Is One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary getting better or worse?
Based on 2025 CAASPP data, proficiency at One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary decreases by 2.0 percentage points from Grade 3 to grade 5 growth. This downward pattern doesn't necessarily mean the school is failing — it can reflect cohort differences, demographic shifts, or curriculum changes. A campus visit and conversation with teachers can reveal what the numbers can't. Growth trajectory is weighted at 15% in the elementary Scope Score because it measures what the school does, not just who walks in the door.
What is the attendance and school culture like at One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary?
9.7% of students at One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary are chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), which is better than the California average of 18.1%. The suspension rate is 0.2%, indicating a low-discipline-incident environment. SchoolScope includes these culture metrics in the Scope Score because they reflect day-to-day school experience in ways test scores alone cannot.
How does One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary compare to other schools in Gardena?
One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary scores 66/100 (87th percentile) among California elementary schools. To compare with nearby schools, SchoolScope shows the same metrics side by side: exceeded rate, proficiency, growth trajectory, and school culture indicators. The school serves 359 students. Use the schools in Gardena page or the map view to compare all elementary schools nearby.
How does One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
At One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary in Gardena, 66.4% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 40.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. One Hundred Fifty-Sixth Street Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 25.5 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (60.3% Math proficient); Hispanic students (67.2% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 6.0 percentage points for hispanic students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 131 students tested. SchoolScope shows disaggregated test scores by demographic subgroup so you can see how a school performs for your child's specific group — not just the school-wide average. Subgroup data is context, not part of the Scope Score: we don't penalize schools for who they serve. See our equity approach.

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Data source: California Department of Education (2025 test year) · How we score · Explore all schools · Blog