Summary
William W. Orr Elementary is a K–5 school with 353 students in Norwalk, California, in the Little Lake City Elementary district, alongside several other nearby K–5 schools. The most urgent signal for families is a sharp rise in chronic absenteeism: the reported rate climbed from 17% in 2024–2025 to 42% in 2025–2026, up 25 percentage points. The latest rate is also above the district’s 38% and the state’s 18%.
Test results show clear strengths in English language arts and science, while math is the weakest subject relative to nearby schools. In 2025–2026, 61% of Orr students were proficient in ELA, compared with 60% in the district and 49% statewide; that was second-highest among nearby schools, whose average was 51%. Science proficiency was 52%, above the district’s 41% and the state’s 36%, and third-highest among nearby schools. Math was 43%—slightly above the district’s 42% and state’s 38%, but below the nearby average of 44%, ranking seventh among the ten schools. Fourth-grade math stands out as a particular concern: 24% were proficient, versus 44% in the district and 42% statewide; only one nearby school scored lower. Fourth-grade ELA was also below the district, at 50% versus 54%.
Results over time are mixed: from 2022–2023 to 2025–2026, ELA was flat at 61%, math fell 11 percentage points from 54% to 43%, and science rose 6 points from 46% to 52%. SchoolDigger ranks Orr at the 72nd statewide percentile, 1,652nd of 5,804 schools, with 4 stars; it is fourth-highest among nearby schools, though its percentile has fallen from 81 in 2023–2024. SchoolDigger’s measure of how well Orr serves Hispanic students places the school at the 89th percentile, compared with its overall 72nd; for students in special education, it is at the 56th percentile. As context, Orr’s 2024–2025 student-teacher ratio was 20.7, compared with a nearby-school average of 21.7, and 77% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible, close to the nearby average of 78%.
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