Franklin Avenue Elementary School

Our experience at this school has been positive.

Great. An academically-focused public school is a bit of a rude awakening after private play-based preschool, but the kids are leaning fast. Parents are really nice and the new family get togethers are so welcome. Wish there were even a tiny patch of grass—it’s all asphalt. Also the kids have to wait in line to play in the one gym structure, “The apparatus.” Yikes.

My son arrived after the school year had began and without speaking any English as we moved from overseas. The principal was so very kind from the beginning. They payed a lot of attention on my son, the English Learner Program is serious, very open to parents and his kindergarden teacher Mr. Lawton is absolutely amazing, sweet, fun and yet extremely concerned about the education . My son literally cries on weekends because he wants to go to School. I would recommend this school to anyone who lives around.

While Franklin is a lot better than other LAUSD schools, it still has a lot of room for improvement: education around bullying can be improved, de-tracking kids (it's better not to cluster high achievers, for example, which every classroom does), teaching math in more innovative ways rather than getting kids to learn "math facts" and regurgitate them for the state tests, involving parents in more meaningful ways than just a source of fundraising, giving civility lessons to the front office staff, and promoting more transparency in terms of teaching methods and curriculum by requiring teachers to communicate more about these and inviting feedback, for example. Most parents would like to have better communication with teachers on this last point, but it is not prioritized and parents are expected to just trust that teachers know what they are doing and judge performance only by test results. Some things we love about Franklin are: stable teaching staff, friendly school atmosphere, afterschool enrichment classes, emphasis on reading books as opposed to reading selections in textbooks, the "reading buddies" program, and the integration of older grades with younger grades via the service club.