One Hundred Fifty-third Street Elementary, Gardena CA

Original Research by School Decision on One Hundred Fifty-third Street Elementary

One Hundred Fifty-Third Street Elementary is a public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Gardena, a diverse South Bay suburb of Los Angeles. The school sits within Los Angeles Unified, a very large urban district that recently passed a major property tax increase for school facilities repairs and implemented an all-day student cellphone ban affecting daily school culture and communication.

The school's enrollment is small, comprising roughly equal cohorts across its six grade levels. A very substantial majority of the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic and Latino, with substantial shares of Black students and Asian students; the composition reflects both Gardena's historic Japanese American presence and its broader demographic diversity. Data on the school's rate of English learners and students with IEPs was not available.

State testing results show weak proficiency across subjects. In math, third-grade proficiency stands at roughly forty percent, while proficiency drops notably in grades four and five, falling to roughly a quarter of students. English language arts proficiency is somewhat higher in grade three at around fifty percent but falls below thirty percent in grade four and rises slightly in grade five to roughly a third of students. Science proficiency is particularly low, with fewer than one in five fifth-graders meeting standards. Across all tested grades and subjects combined, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other schools across Los Angeles County districts.

Gardena itself is an automobile-centric grid suburb with a distinct character shaped by its Japanese American heritage alongside a broadly mixed population. The area mixes small ranch homes on numbered streets with commercial corridors and light manufacturing zones. Walkable pockets of Japanese businesses, restaurants, and markets cluster along stretches like South Western Avenue. Nearby employment is diverse, spanning manufacturing, retail, healthcare, logistics, and gaming; major employers include Nissin Foods, Target, Hustler Casino, and Memorial Hospital. The community is experiencing multifamily housing growth driven by state mandates and South Bay job demand, with several new apartment and micro-apartment projects completed or underway. Housing values and rents in the area are substantial, and the property tax increase from the recently approved Measure US bond will affect all property owners in the district over the next several decades.

A parent considering this school for their child faces the reality of below-grade-level performance across core subjects, with particularly steep challenges in math beyond third grade and science. The school serves a low-income student body with very high rates of economic need. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school itself regarding what interventions or support structures are in place to address the proficiency gaps, what curriculum approaches are used, and how the school engages families in student progress. The surrounding community offers stable residential character, local employment, and increasingly diverse housing options, though the cost of living remains high and will rise further under the new property tax regime.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 426%

School 26% · District 43% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 36% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 350%

School 50% · District 44% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 45% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 47% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 29% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolLos Angeles 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 5Lower-income36%Higher-income36%0 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income27%1 pp gap