Castle Heights Elementary vs Third Street Elementary

Third Street Elementary edges out Castle Heights Elementary by 0.3 rating points — 9.6 versus 9.3 out of 10 — but the gap in state standing is far more striking. Third Street Elementary ranks #8 of 9,533 schools in California, placing it among the top 0.1 percent statewide, while Castle Heights Elementary ranks #68 — itself a top-1-percent finish, but 60 positions back. Both schools sit 4.2 miles apart in Los Angeles, serve the same grade span of kindergarten through fifth grade, and compete in the same city market, which makes the state rank delta the clearest signal of relative standing.

Academically, Third Street Elementary scores a perfect 10.0 out of 10 versus Castle Heights Elementary's 9.7 — a 0.3-point difference that, in a field of 9,500-plus schools, translates to a meaningful percentile gap at the very top of the distribution. Growth scores are nearly identical: Third Street Elementary posts a 9.9 and Castle Heights Elementary a 9.8, indicating both schools accelerate student learning at an exceptional rate regardless of where kids start. Families prioritizing raw academic achievement will find Third Street Elementary's ceiling slightly higher, while those weighting learning velocity will find the two schools essentially matched.

Third Street Elementary enrolls 691 students against Castle Heights Elementary's 513 — a 35 percent larger student body. Third Street's free and reduced-price lunch rate is 43 percent, compared to 30 percent at Castle Heights Elementary, reflecting a more economically diverse student population. The student-teacher ratio at Third Street Elementary is 22.3:1, marginally lower than Castle Heights Elementary's 23.3:1, meaning Third Street's classrooms average roughly one fewer student per teacher despite the larger overall enrollment.

Both schools serve kindergarten through fifth grade with no structural differences in grade span. The performance gap is entirely driven by academic score and state rank, not program architecture. Castle Heights Elementary's #68 statewide rank is genuinely exceptional for any Los Angeles public elementary school; Third Street Elementary's #8 ranking is in a different category altogether, representing one of the highest-performing elementary schools in the entire state by the metrics captured here.