Garfield Elementary, Long Beach CA

Original Research by School Decision on Garfield Elementary

Garfield Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in the Baltic Avenue area of Long Beach. The school enrolls students across a broad early-elementary span, so state testing data appear only for grades three through five. On those assessments, proficiency in English language arts hovers around the low- to mid-range, with fifth graders performing notably higher than their third-grade peers. Math proficiency is lower, ranging from around the low-to-mid range in grade three and dropping slightly in grade four before recovering somewhat in grade five. Science proficiency, tested only at fifth grade, sits noticeably below both English language arts and math. Against other schools in Los Angeles County, Garfield's overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint, placing it in the lower half of the county's tested schools.

The enrollment is modest, skewing slightly larger in the upper grades. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating notable economic need in the school's catchment. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a meaningful population of Asian students and smaller populations of Black and white students. The school does not report data on students with disabilities (IEP) or English learners, so the scope of those populations is not visible in the available information.

Garfield sits within Long Beach Unified, a district serving a large urban area that has been managing sustained enrollment decline over the past two decades. The district recently approved a multibillion-dollar bond measure to upgrade aging facilities and safety systems, a long-term investment that adds a property-tax component for families. More immediately relevant, the district board voted in late 2024 to close Hudson Elementary at the end of the school year and merge its attendance boundary into Garfield's, which means the school's enrollment footprint is expanding even as district enrollment shrinks overall. This merger is direct: families living in what was Hudson's zone will now feed into Garfield rather than attending a separate school nearby.

Long Beach is a large, diverse coastal city with a strong port-and-aerospace economic base and a noted housing boom underway downtown, though the immediate neighborhood context for Garfield reflects traditional working-class and immigrant-influenced Long Beach rather than the growth-oriented core. The city is walkable overall, though not all neighborhoods are equally so, and public transit connects to the larger region. Schools in the district are assigned by home address with a school-choice lottery available.

A parent evaluating Garfield should understand that proficiency results are modest relative to the county benchmark, math is a particular area of need, and the school is now absorbing a neighboring school's attendance zone. The school's high rates of economic disadvantage align with Long Beach's broader demographic and economic profile. Whether Garfield is the right fit depends on whether the neighborhood location suits a family's housing search and how the school's current academic posture and support capacity match what a student needs.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 49% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 45% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 48% · ▼ 8 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 50% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 55% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 33% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolLong Beach Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income32%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income60%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income41%Higher-income35%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income35%7 pp gap