Garfield Elementary: This school runs ahead of the state average. The bar itself is the harder conversation.
Garfield posts 43% meeting the standard against 43% statewide — ahead of most, with real headroom above the bar.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Growth | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42 | 17% | 43% | +9.0 | 24.6% | 1.2% |
| CA average · Elementary School | 45 | 21% | 43% | -2.9 | 17.9% | 1.6% |
Garfield Elementary scores 42 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 49th 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 →
📈 On the Rise — Ask how many years the improvement has held, not just the latest one — one strong cohort and a real turnaround can look identical in a single year of data.
Most rating sites would stop at “43% proficient” and call it done. Garfield deserves a closer read. The school sits in Long Beach, where three in four students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
The seven-year arc
Has stayed near the 49th percentile since 2019.
The pandemic drop is behind this school: 43% of students meet the standard today, above the 38% who did in 2019.
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 39% | 33% | 43% | 40% | 41% |
| Grade 4 | 30% | 36% | 36% | 39% | 45% |
| Grade 5 | 47% | 49% | 53% | 34% | 57% |
| Grade | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 41% | 36% | 38% | 38% | 40% |
| Grade 4 | 38% | 28% | 27% | 51% | 36% |
| Grade 5 | 32% | 26% | 26% | 29% | 41% |
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 falls 10.7pp across grades; the floor rises 16.6pp. The state average rises 4.5pp over the same span. A school visit and conversation with teachers will tell you more than this number.
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 how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- 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 Garfield Elementary in Long Beach, 46.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 41.9% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Garfield Elementary outperforms its district average for low-income students by 4.3 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (38.4% Math proficient); Hispanic students (44.1% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 27.3 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 195 students tested.
6 of 13 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 13.0pp from grade 3 to grade 5 at this school. District average: +7.6pp.
Showing up, and staying in class
TK/K students miss school at roughly twice the rate of Grades 4–6 students (35.5% vs 20.1%). Chronic absence here concentrates in the earliest grades — worth asking how the school works with new families on attendance.
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Feeder patterns derived from NCES attendance boundary data. Boundaries are approximate and may have changed — verify with your school district for current assignments.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$426 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
Transitional kindergarten is offered here — confirmed by actual Census Day enrollment, not just the listed grade span.
On the state's science test (CAST), 24% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 but never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Garfield Elementary a good elementary school?
What are Garfield Elementary's CAASPP test scores?
How does Garfield Elementary rank in California?
Is Garfield Elementary getting better or worse?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Garfield Elementary?
How does Garfield Elementary compare to other schools in Long Beach?
How does Garfield Elementary serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby Elementary Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 60
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
A low score doesn't tell the whole story. Read: Your School Scored Low — Here's What That Actually Means
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 | 79 | 23% | 18% | 15% | 44% | 41% | −3 |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 24% | 20% | 26% | 30% | 45% | −0 |
| Grade 5 | 91 | 12% | 45% | 13% | 30% | 57% | +9 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 3 | 81 | 15% | 25% | 26% | 35% | 40% | −6 |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 15% | 22% | 43% | 20% | 36% | −5 |
| Grade 5 | 93 | 11% | 30% | 23% | 37% | 41% | +6 |
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5/8/11 | 93 | 4% | 19% | 58% | 18% |
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 | 195 | 46.2% | +4 | +8 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 186 | 44.1% | −1 | +5 |
| English Learners | 71 | 19.7% | +7 | +9 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Elementary ← | — | 42 | 16.6% | 43.2% | +9.0 | 1.2% |
| Longfellow Elementary | 2.7 mi | 63 | 35.6% | 60.7% | +3.9 | 1.4% |
| Los Cerritos Elementary | 2.2 mi | 60 | 44.4% | 67.2% | −3.5 | 0.1% |
| Dominguez Elementary | 2.6 mi | 57 | 25.2% | 53.4% | −2.9 | 0.1% |
| California average | — | 45 | 21.3% | 42.7% | −2.9 | 1.6% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 39 | 42 | #3210 | 14.7% | 37.8% | 11.9% | 1.2% | +0.1pp |
| 2022 | 37 | 53 | #2697 | 15.0% | 34.7% | 47.0% | 0.7% | +3.4pp |
| 2023 | 42 | 57 | #2479 | 15.9% | 37.3% | 35.8% | 0.5% | -1.6pp |
| 2024 | 42 | 50 | #2865 | 17.6% | 38.4% | 23.1% | 1.8% | -7.6pp |
| 2025 | 42 | 49 | #2940 | 16.6% | 43.2% | 24.6% | 1.2% | +9.0pp |
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 11.3% | 25.8% | +14.5pp |
| Male | 12.4% | 24.4% | +12.0pp |
| Asian | 9.5% | 15.0% | +5.5pp |
| Black/African American | 23.4% | 39.4% | +16.0pp |
| White | 7.5% | 8.3% | +0.8pp |
| Hispanic/Latino | 10.8% | 27.4% | +16.6pp |
| Pacific Islander | 25.0% | — | — |
| Students with Disabilities | 15.0% | 30.4% | +15.4pp |
| English Learners | 9.0% | 20.5% | +11.5pp |
| Foster Youth | 14.3% | — | — |
| Homeless | 22.9% | 49.0% | +26.1pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 12.6% | 27.7% | +15.1pp |
| All Students | 11.9% | 25.0% | +13.1pp |
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