Malabar Street Elementary vs Multnomah Street Elementary

Multnomah Street Elementary ranks #20 out of 9,533 California schools, placing it among the state's top fraction of a percent. Malabar Street Elementary, at #287 of 9,533, is itself a strong performer — a top 3% school statewide — but the gap between these two Los Angeles elementaries is substantial: 6.6 points in state rank and a full 0.6-point overall rating difference (Malabar at 8.9/10, Multnomah at 9.5/10). For a pair of schools 1.7 miles apart, that distance in performance is meaningful.

Academic scores drive most of that separation. Multnomah Street Elementary earns a 9.3/10 on academic proficiency versus Malabar Street Elementary's 7.7/10 — a 1.6-point gap that reflects concrete differences in tested outcomes. Growth tells a different story: both schools are exceptional developers of student progress, with Malabar scoring 9.5/10 and Multnomah scoring 9.8/10. That near-identical growth performance at Malabar is particularly notable given its student demographics, suggesting strong instructional effectiveness relative to incoming skill levels.

Malabar Street Elementary serves 420 students compared to Multnomah Street Elementary's 336, making Malabar the larger campus by 25%. Student-teacher ratios are close — 19.1:1 at Malabar versus 19.8:1 at Multnomah — so class size is not a meaningful differentiator. The sharpest demographic contrast is socioeconomic: 97% of Malabar students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch versus 71% at Multnomah. Malabar's high growth score in that context reflects a school delivering well above expectations for a high-need population.

One structural difference applies to families with older elementary-age children: Malabar Street Elementary serves grades K–6, while Multnomah Street Elementary tops out at grade 5. Families with a rising 6th grader retain an additional year at Malabar before transitioning to middle school, which can reduce logistical disruption. Neither school offers a program distinction that emerges from available data, so this grade-span difference is the primary structural factor beyond academic and demographic profiles.