Aviation Elementary: Most kids here clear the bar, year after year. The question is what happens after that.
Aviation posts 62% meeting the standard, and 34.9% going well past it. Most kids here keep up. Fewer get pushed further. Ask the school what it does for a child who already finds the work easy.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 62 | 35% | 62% | -3.4 | 8.2% | 1.3% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Aviation Elementary scores 62 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 84th percentile of 5,744 California elementary schools (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
🌱 Building Momentum — This label means the data doesn't clearly sort the school one way or the other — ask what the school is proud of, and what it's working on.
Most rating sites would stop at “62% proficient” and call it done. Aviation deserves a closer read. The school sits in Hawthorne, where one in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
Aviation's low-income kids hit 52.1% proficiency in ELA — a number the same group reaches at 38.2% statewide. If you're trying to read past zip-code-driven test scores, that's the signal worth weighing.
The seven-year arc
Climbed from the 74th to the 84th percentile since 2019 — past roughly 500 elementary schools.
Proficiency here is back to its pre-pandemic level — 62% meet the standard, about where the school stood in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 68% | 56% | 65% | 58% | 65% |
| Grade 4 | 72% | 61% | 59% | 64% | 56% |
| Grade 5 | 73% | 67% | 66% | 67% | 66% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 60% | 56% | 60% | 68% | 66% |
| Grade 4 | 68% | 56% | 52% | 63% | 61% |
| Grade 5 | 47% | 47% | 55% | 54% | 59% |
The story this school is actually telling
The school, grade by grade
ELA · CAASPP 2024–25Different students, same year — each bar is one grade's proficiency mix.
The honest read: the share exceeding holds steady across grades; the proficiency floor barely moves. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
Aviation's most underrated number
52.1% of low-income students met the ELA standard — versus 38.2% for the same group statewide. That's the strongest kind of signal a school can post: it holds across income lines.
The 6 things our score weighs
Ask how the school challenges kids who clear the standard early. The gap between meeting and exceeding is where pacing shows.
- Ask what changes between grade 3 and grade 5 here, and who teaches the older kids.
- Ask whether extra support — tutoring, counseling, small groups — reaches kids across income lines, not just the students already ahead.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Aviation Elementary in Hawthorne, 52.1% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 52.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Aviation Elementary trails its district average for low-income students by 0.6 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (47.1% Math proficient); Hispanic students (53.0% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 43.5 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 140 students tested.
5 of 15 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Change in proficiency from the lowest tested grade — which groups gain ground the longer they stay. Groups with fewer than 10 tested students per grade are not shown.
Low-income student ELA proficiency rises by 16.7pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +3.3pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
What gets spent here
$1,015 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
On the state's science test (CAST), 42% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aviation Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Aviation Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Aviation Elementary rank in California?
Is Aviation Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Aviation Elementary?
How does Aviation Elementary compare to other schools in Hawthorne?
How does Aviation Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 88
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and peer comparisons.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 140 | 39% | 26% | 16% | 19% | 65% | +22 |
| Grade 4 | 146 | 29% | 27% | 23% | 21% | 56% | +11 |
| Grade 5 | 146 | 38% | 27% | 18% | 16% | 66% | +18 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 140 | 36% | 30% | 24% | 10% | 66% | +21 |
| Grade 4 | 146 | 29% | 32% | 30% | 9% | 61% | +19 |
| Grade 5 | 146 | 36% | 23% | 30% | 11% | 59% | +24 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 146 | 20% | 22% | 53% | 5% |
CAST is tested in grades 5, 8, and once in high school — not annually. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 140 | 52.1% | −1 | +14 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 234 | 53.0% | −5 | +14 |
| White | 87 | 70.1% | −3 | +8 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aviation Elementary ← | — | 62 | 34.9% | 62.2% | −3.4 | 1.3% |
| Opal Robinson Elementary | 2.6 mi | 92 | 67.0% | 88.9% | +7.6 | 0.7% |
| Aurelia Pennekamp Elementary | 2.1 mi | 89 | 71.2% | 90.3% | +0.6 | 0.1% |
| Pacific Elementary | 2.1 mi | 85 | 61.1% | 83.3% | +10.3 | 0.5% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 55 | 74 | #1436 | 29.5% | 64.7% | 5.5% | 0.9% | -3.5pp |
| 2022 | 53 | 81 | #1095 | 28.9% | 57.3% | 13.3% | 0.0% | +0.8pp |
| 2023 | 56 | 80 | #1148 | 30.2% | 59.5% | 16.5% | 0.5% | -2.1pp |
| 2024 | 61 | 83 | #974 | 33.6% | 62.2% | 10.1% | 0.7% | -2.7pp |
| 2025 | 62 | 84 | #903 | 34.9% | 62.2% | 8.2% | 1.3% | -3.4pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.0% | 7.5% | +3.5pp |
| Male | 6.7% | 8.2% | +1.5pp |
| Asian | 0.0% | 4.0% | +4.0pp |
| Black/African American | 5.9% | 9.7% | +3.8pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.4% | 9.9% | +5.5pp |
| Two or More Races | 0.0% | 2.6% | +2.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 5.1% | 9.0% | +3.9pp |
| English Learners | 4.5% | 17.6% | +13.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 5.4% | 11.2% | +5.8pp |
| All Students | 5.4% | 7.9% | +2.5pp |
| White | — | 0.0% | — |
SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction