Gates Street Elementary vs Glen Alta Elementary

Gates Street Elementary and Glen Alta Elementary sit just 1.0 mile apart in Los Angeles, yet their statewide standings tell starkly different stories. Gates Street Elementary ranks #284 of 9,533 California schools — a strong result — but Glen Alta Elementary ranks #41 of 9,533, placing it in the top 0.5 percent of all schools in the state. That translates to an overall rating gap of 0.5 points, with Glen Alta Elementary scoring 9.4/10 against Gates Street Elementary's 8.9/10, a meaningful difference at the high end of the scale.

On the academic measures that drive those ratings, Glen Alta Elementary holds the edge on both dimensions. Its academic score of 8.6/10 outpaces Gates Street Elementary's 8.2/10 by 0.4 points, while its growth score of 9.7/10 exceeds Gates Street Elementary's already-strong 9.4/10 by 0.3 points. Both schools are outperforming the vast majority of their California peers, but Glen Alta Elementary's consistency across academic attainment and year-over-year growth marks it as the higher-performing campus by the numbers available.

The demographic profiles of the two schools are more similar than different, yet a few concrete differences matter for families evaluating fit. Gates Street Elementary enrolls 461 students compared to Glen Alta Elementary's 116 — nearly four times the enrollment — which affects daily school culture and resource allocation. Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility is high at both campuses: 93% at Gates Street Elementary and 97% at Glen Alta Elementary, confirming that both schools serve predominantly low-income communities. The clearest structural difference is the student-teacher ratio: Glen Alta Elementary's 14.5:1 ratio offers meaningfully more adult attention per student than Gates Street Elementary's 20.0:1.

Program and grade-level structure also separate the two schools. Gates Street Elementary serves grades KG through 5, a standard elementary configuration. Glen Alta Elementary extends through grade 8, making it a KG–8 school that allows families to avoid a middle school transition entirely. That continuity can be a decisive factor for parents who value a single consistent campus through early adolescence.