Original Research by School Decision on Lakewood High
Lakewood High is a mid-sized public high school in the Long Beach Unified School District serving grades nine through twelve. The school draws from Lakewood, a planned postwar suburb built in the early nineteen-fifties as a family-oriented residential community. Housing in the area centers on single-family homes, with retail concentrated on main thoroughfares and a significant mall redevelopment underway; the region is car-dependent, with residents commuting via nearby interstate and state routes. Employment anchors include healthcare, education, and retail.
The student body reflects the diversity of southern Los Angeles County. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is distributed fairly evenly across the four high school grades. Roughly half the school is Hispanic, with sizable shares of Black and Asian students and smaller populations of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, White, and multiracial students. Data on the share of students with disabilities and English learners was not available.
Academic performance presents a mixed picture. In English language arts, roughly one in two students met state proficiency standards. In mathematics, fewer than one in five students met those standards, and in science, the proficiency rate was similarly low. Only one year of state assessment data was provided, so trend direction cannot be determined. A parent seeking detail on what accounts for the gap between ELA performance and the notably weaker results in math and science may want to look into this further with the school and the district.
Graduation rate data was not available. Long Beach Unified has experienced sustained enrollment decline over roughly two decades, which has led the board to close schools; Hudson Elementary closure was approved in November 2024. This regional enrollment pressure may affect school resources and programming availability over time.
The district has adopted new course offerings relevant to current and incoming students. California mandates ethnic studies as a graduation requirement; LBUSD created an eleventh-grade blended ethnic studies and U.S. history course and standalone electives, plus free dual-enrollment ethnic studies courses with California State University, Long Beach, that award both high school and college credit. These reshape the graduation pathway. The district also undertook a voter-approved bond measure in 2022 to upgrade aging campuses, safety infrastructure, and career education spaces; this property-tax-funded bond will collect through the mid-2040s, a long-term cost consideration for families in the district.
Lakewood High occupies a thirty-two-acre campus within residential neighborhoods. The broader Lakewood community emphasizes parks, libraries, and family activities; the Lakewood Center mall, long a retail anchor, is undergoing redevelopment into a mixed-use district with residential, wellness, and green space components. The city is growing through infill, accessory dwelling units, and commercial redevelopment as a built-out postwar suburb.
See more original research from School Decision →