Garfield Elementary

Garfield Elementary sits in Bell Gardens, a tight-knit working-class community in the southeast corner of Los Angeles County where families tend to have deep roots and strong ties to the neighborhood. The school serves a largely Latino community through Montebello Unified, and while test scores are below the state median, it's the kind of school where the surrounding community's resilience and close-knit culture shape the daily environment as much as anything in the curriculum. Families who are engaged and looking to be active partners in their child's education — rather than simply dropping them off — will likely find a school community that welcomes that involvement.