Farmdale Elementary vs Third Street Elementary

Third Street Elementary holds a 9.6/10 overall rating versus Farmdale Elementary's 9.3/10 — a 0.3-point gap that understates the distance in state standing. Third Street Elementary ranks #8 of 9,533 California elementary schools; Farmdale Elementary ranks #71 of the same pool. Both outcomes are exceptional, but a family weighing the two should understand that Third Street Elementary sits in a tier fewer than ten schools statewide reach.

The academic scores tell the sharpest story: Third Street Elementary scores 10.0/10 compared to Farmdale Elementary's 8.5/10 — a 1.5-point gap that places Third Street Elementary at the ceiling of California performance. Growth scores, by contrast, are nearly identical: Farmdale Elementary earns 10.0/10 and Third Street Elementary earns 9.9/10. That means students at Farmdale Elementary are progressing at essentially the same rate as students at the higher-achieving school — a signal that Farmdale's teachers are driving strong individual gains even from a lower proficiency baseline.

The two schools serve meaningfully different populations. Farmdale Elementary enrolls 317 students with 85% qualifying for free or reduced lunch; Third Street Elementary enrolls 691 students with 43% on free or reduced lunch. The student-teacher ratio at Farmdale Elementary is 19.8:1 versus 22.3:1 at Third Street Elementary, giving Farmdale students roughly two and a half fewer peers per classroom on average. Both schools cover grades KG–05 and sit 8.9 miles apart within Los Angeles, making a deliberate cross-town choice a real consideration for families.

Both campuses serve the same grade span — kindergarten through fifth grade — so program structure at the level of grades offered is identical. The differentiation lies in scale and resource context: Third Street Elementary operates at more than twice the enrollment, which typically supports broader elective staffing and extracurricular depth, while Farmdale Elementary's smaller size and lower ratio can mean more individualized attention per student. Neither school has a publicly reported lottery or magnet designation in the data provided, so both serve their attendance zones as neighborhood schools.