Escalona Elementary School

15135 Escalona Road

School District

Norwalk-La Mirada Unified
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:22
Type

public

School Map for Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on July 11, 2024

The office staff are extremely immature. Be prepared to have them criticize and mock you out of earshot to everyone in the office like you are in high school. They also are behind on when paperwork is supposed to be filed and will blame you for lateness but will not reach out unless you complain to the school district.
Submitted by parent on October 24, 2022

Escalona has been great so far for my 6 year old daughter! Homework is reasonable! The teachers care a lot about the students and go above and beyond for unlike most schools! My daughter writing Ahmad definitely improved since coming here from a different school!
Submitted by parent on November 13, 2019

I have been pretty happy with Escalona. My daughter graduated last year and she had an amazing experience there. She is currently performing in her first play in middle school, and 4 of her past teachers are coming to see her in the play. Most don't even live in the area, so they are giving up their own personal time at their home to support a student who they had in their classes years ago, just because they are amazing and supportive teachers. We have loved each and every teacher that we have had at that school. Some might say that the staff is strict, but they have to deal with 500-600 kids on a daily basis, and they have to be strict about stuff. I am happy that I sent my kids to Escalona
Submitted by parent on March 13, 2019

Love this school. The teachers are amazing and all 3 of my kids are getting an amazing education here at Escalona. Out test scores are very high 903
Submitted by parent on April 24, 2018

I feel our child is being challenged in school work and we take active roll at home as well. I believe its a joint effort!
Submitted by parent on September 18, 2015

My child just started kindergarten here. At first we were excited to learn that her teacher is a 31 year veteran teaching in her final year. But after only a few weeks, we have been disappointed. First, she always arrives right as the bell rings in the morning so it is difficult to speak with her. We could try to speak with her after school, but doing so disrupts the flow of parent pickups. We've already had to endure a long conversation between the teacher and a parent while other parents, kids, and I waited for the teacher to finish her conversation so she could approve dismissals. We would hate to be the cause of any future delay for other families and so are discouraged from occupying her time after school. So far she has made herself seem unapproachable. Second, at back to school night she spoke unconvincingly about the common core. Her words said it was good, but her nonverbal expressions told a different story. It seems the veteran teacher may be too set in her ways to embrace a change in teaching method that my child needs as she advances through levels fully using the common core. Third, the homework is a joke. My child has been writing and reading sight words since preschool. At Escalona, her first assignments were to draw vertical lines as they help children learn to write. I wish the school offered accelerated classes for lower level grades but they don't. GATE starts in 4th grade. Without a doubt, my child is not challenged at all in her class. One reason for this could be the school's focus on listening and speaking, which makes sense for non-English speaking families, but what about those who are fluent? How is this school challenging them? So far, it hasn't. Most disappointing though is hearing from my daughter how little she talks with her teacher. My wife often comments about favouritism, how the teacher is always showing certain students and their parents more attention. But to hear from my daughter also that she is not interacting with her teacher is really saddening. We chose Escalona because of its strong rating on this site. But perhaps not all 9s are created equal. I do hope, however, to return to this site and post an update or even an apology about how wrong I am here. But I can't do that yet because this is what my experiences have been thus far. I hope my opinion changes before my child's enthusiasm for school fades.
Submitted by parent on September 12, 2015

My son just started his first year of kinder at Escalona and we couldn't have been happier with the results so far. With just a couple of weeks in school he's already spelling out street signs when we are red lights, comes home tells us how much he loves his new school and teachers. I'm excited for the rest of the school year.
Submitted by parent on September 08, 2015

After reading some of the comments about the principle Mrs. Lytle I have to agree she does run a tight ship. At first I misunderstood her and then I got to know her. As a mother of two active boys who is sometimes stressed with them alone I could only imagine how Mrs. Lytle does it. The safety of my children and all who go there has always been a priority to her. She may be a little on the tough side but she is dealing with children who listen when she enters the room and sit quietly during an assembly. The school is rated #9 best school and for a good reason. One year my son did something horrible and I literally wanted to seek a priest. But she calmly told me that he is a child and we all make mistakes and she was so understanding and caring. Give her a chance and you will see she is firm yes, but she is taking care of your children and making sure they are safe. I only have one child there now my other has gone off to middle school as a honor student who loved every one of his teachers there at Escalona. My current child there is in 5th grade and loves all his teachers and is also looking forward to reuniting with his brother in middle school with excellent grades as well. I do not know of any bad teachers as both my boys had some of the same and some not the same so we had almost all of them. My advice, get involved parents, join PTA, talk to your child's teacher, be there so you can see for yourself who these talented people really are. They do really care about your children and their education.
Submitted by other on June 05, 2015

I wish there was a way to rate the school seperate from the office staff and principal. Most of the teachers here are wonderful. My son has truly excelled at this school academic wise. The princpal and secratary Patty are horrible! They are SOOO rude to the students and parents. They act as if they have better things to do and the principal could truly care less about the kids. She has such a rude, undermining tone. My son refuses to go to the office even when he is sick because they are always to mean and tell him hes fine and to go back to class. They really need to find a new principal who wants to deal with elementary aged kids and an assistant who likes her job!!! Shame on the county for keeping people like this!!!
Submitted by parent on September 23, 2014

I love Escalona! One of my daughter's graduated from this school and I have a 2nd grader attending here now. I do understand why the kids would be scared to approach Mrs. Lytle, the principal at the school, as most kids are scared of her, but she runs a tight ship and this is why the school is how it is, run orderly and scoring high. We actually like that our girls are a bit intimidated by their principal! They show respect for authority and it is a must in kids lives. She has never been rude to us as parents and is very approachable. As much as my girls have been scared of her it has never been to the point that they fear speaking to her. Of course the school is not perfect and with the exception of one or two teachers, my girls have flourished and learned from the wonderful educators here. Very thankful for most of the teachers here and the office staff! We feel very lucky to be a part of this wonderful school!
Submitted by parent on September 03, 2014

I could not be more unhappy with this school. The principle is not friendly and welcoming to parents or students. My daughter will not even approach the principle when she feels there is a problem that she would like to speak out on because the principle has time and time again made the children feel they are not important and speaks down to them. There are some good teachers but if you are unlucky and get one of the "not so great" ones, your child will have a miserable year as mine did. My son was made to stay in school with headaches and was afraid to tell the teacher he didn't feel good out of fear of her yelling at him. He once vomited in his mouth because he didn't want to get yelled at by the teacher for telling her he wasn't feeling good. Absolutely ridiculous! It is very unfortunate because the school has the potential to be really great as the academics seem to be on point. The only real problem is the staff.