Clover Avenue Elementary vs Third Street Elementary

Third Street Elementary sits at #8 of 9,533 California schools, while Clover Avenue Elementary ranks #278 of the same pool — both exceptional positions, but the 270-rank gap reflects a meaningful overall rating difference: 9.6/10 for Third Street Elementary versus 8.9/10 for Clover Avenue Elementary, a 0.7-point spread. For parents weighing two genuinely strong schools 6.0 miles apart in Los Angeles, that gap is worth understanding at the component level rather than taking at face value.

Academically, the two schools are nearly identical: Clover Avenue Elementary scores 9.9/10 versus Third Street Elementary's 10.0/10, a difference of just 0.1 points. The more telling separation comes in growth — how much schools accelerate student learning relative to peers. Third Street Elementary scores 9.9/10 on growth compared to Clover Avenue Elementary's 8.9/10, a full point difference. That 1.0-point growth gap drives most of the overall rating differential and suggests Third Street Elementary is more consistently moving students forward regardless of where they start.

The two schools serve demographically similar populations, which makes their performance comparison cleaner. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility sits at 40% at Clover Avenue Elementary and 43% at Third Street Elementary — statistically close. Third Street Elementary enrolls 691 students against Clover Avenue Elementary's 498, making it a larger campus. The student-teacher ratio at Clover Avenue Elementary is 23.7:1 versus 22.3:1 at Third Street Elementary, so Third Street Elementary offers modestly smaller class sizes despite its higher enrollment — a function of staffing levels rather than total school size.

Both schools cover the same grade span, kindergarten through fifth grade, so families with children anywhere in elementary school will find a complete program at either campus. The practical difference is that Third Street Elementary's combination of near-perfect academic scores and a growth score 1.0 point higher has pushed it to elite status within California's ranking system, while Clover Avenue Elementary, though firmly in the top 3% of the state, trails on the growth dimension that predicts long-term student trajectory.