Learning by Design Charter vs Third Street Elementary

Third Street Elementary outranks Learning by Design Charter by a wide margin in California's statewide standings — #8 versus #100 out of 9,533 schools — making it one of the highest-rated elementary schools in the state. Learning by Design Charter still lands in the top 1.1% of California schools, so the comparison is between two genuinely strong options, but the distance between them on the state leaderboard is significant. Third Street Elementary carries an overall rating of 9.6/10 against Learning by Design Charter's 9.2/10, a gap that understates how different the two schools look academically.

The academic score delta is the sharpest dividing line: Third Street Elementary scores a perfect 10.0/10 in academics versus Learning by Design Charter's 8.3/10 — a 1.7-point gap that reflects a meaningful difference in tested proficiency outcomes. Growth tells the opposite story almost exactly. Learning by Design Charter earns a 10.0/10 growth score against Third Street Elementary's 9.9/10, an effective tie that suggests both schools are exceptional at moving students forward from their starting points. Families weighing absolute proficiency levels against individual student trajectory will find these two schools pulling in different directions.

The schools differ substantially in size and demographics. Third Street Elementary enrolls 691 students, nearly six times the 115 enrolled at Learning by Design Charter. Third Street Elementary's free and reduced-price lunch rate is 43%, while Learning by Design Charter serves a higher-need population at 64% FRL — a 21-point gap that reflects meaningfully different socioeconomic contexts. Learning by Design Charter also offers a lower student-teacher ratio of 19.2:1 compared to Third Street Elementary's 22.3:1, giving families who prioritize individual attention a concrete structural reason to look closely at the smaller school despite its lower academic proficiency score.

Both schools serve grades KG–05 and sit 6.6 miles apart in Los Angeles. Learning by Design Charter operates as a charter school, meaning enrollment typically requires an application or lottery rather than a residential attendance boundary. Third Street Elementary is a traditional public school, so access depends on home address within the district's attendance zone.