Aragon Avenue Elementary vs Canfield Avenue Elementary

Canfield Avenue Elementary ranks #17 out of 9,533 schools in California, placing it among the state's elite elementary programs. Aragon Avenue Elementary comes in at #276 — still a strong showing in the top 3% statewide — but the gap is substantial. The overall rating difference is 0.6 points (8.9 vs. 9.5), and in practical terms, Canfield Avenue Elementary's state rank puts it in a different tier entirely, separated from Aragon Avenue Elementary by 259 positions in a pool of nearly ten thousand schools.

Academically, the delta is sharp: Canfield Avenue Elementary scores 9.7/10 versus Aragon Avenue Elementary's 7.4/10 — a 2.3-point difference that reflects meaningfully higher tested proficiency. The growth picture flips, however. Aragon Avenue Elementary earns a perfect 10.0/10 growth score against Canfield Avenue Elementary's 9.8/10, meaning students at Aragon are progressing at an exceptional rate relative to academic starting points. Families weighing a high-absolute-performance school against one that maximizes individual student gains will find a real trade-off here.

The demographic and equity gap between the two schools is wide. Aragon Avenue Elementary serves 216 students with 94% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch — a high-need population navigating significant economic barriers. Canfield Avenue Elementary enrolls 296 students with 49% on free or reduced lunch, a more economically mixed community. Student-teacher ratios are close: 21.6:1 at Aragon Avenue Elementary versus 21.1:1 at Canfield Avenue Elementary, a negligible difference in daily classroom experience. Both schools serve grades KG–05 and sit 9.9 miles apart within Los Angeles.

Both schools operate across the same grade span — kindergarten through fifth grade — so the distinction is not structural but programmatic and contextual. Canfield Avenue Elementary's combination of top-20 state ranking and near-perfect academic score signals a school drawing from a more resourced enrollment base and producing high tested outcomes. Aragon Avenue Elementary's perfect growth score signals a staff that is consistently moving students forward regardless of entry point, which in a 94% FRL school is a meaningful indicator of instructional effectiveness.