The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Gault Street Elementary
Gault Street Elementary is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Lake Balboa, a residential neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley anchored by Lake Balboa Park and the surrounding Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. The school is part of Los Angeles Unified.
Lake Balboa itself is a tree-lined, family-oriented neighborhood of mid-20th-century single-family homes, with walkable residential blocks and the 27-acre lake ringed by a jogging path. The area is predominantly residential with casual dining and small businesses along main corridors; residents access shopping and entertainment elsewhere in the Valley. The neighborhood is served by Metro's G Line bus rapid transit, which connects to the subway at North Hollywood and to Metrolink and Amtrak at Chatsworth. Recent development has brought affordable multifamily housing along transit corridors, and a major water reclamation facility in the adjacent basin serves much of the Valley. The housing market in the zip code reflects typical San Fernando Valley values, with median home prices and rents that leave a substantial gap between ownership and rental costs relative to area median income.
Gault Street's student body is small, around the size typical for an elementary school in its grade band, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across grades. The overwhelming majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting concentrated economic need. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller representations of white, Asian, and Black students and students of two or more races. Data on the school's English learner and special education populations were not available.
Academic proficiency across tested grades and subjects is notably low. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from under a third in grade three to roughly mid-40s in grade five. In mathematics, proficiency is lower, ranging from under one-third in grade three to roughly two-fifths in grade four, then dropping sharply to one-quarter in grade five. Science proficiency in grade five sits at roughly one-fifth. When calculated as an index of overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, the school ranks in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Los Angeles County. Comparable data from prior years is not available to assess whether these results represent stability or change.
Parents considering this school may want to look into the details of what academic interventions or programs the school is implementing in response to these proficiency levels, and whether the school can articulate its approach to accelerating progress in mathematics, where performance appears weakest. The school's small size could be viewed as an asset for community and personalization or as a constraint on program breadth, depending on family preference.
Gault Street sits within a district managing significant change. Los Angeles Unified has just passed a major school facilities bond that will fund repairs and upgrades of aging buildings through long-term property tax increases, a permanent cost to any household in the district's jurisdiction. The district has also implemented a comprehensive ban on student cellphone and smartwatch use throughout the school day, effective February 2025, reshaping daily school culture and student-parent communication. Additionally, the district's culturally responsive curriculum and support staffing, funded through the Black Student Achievement Plan, has been restructured and expanded, shaping educational approaches at many campuses.
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