Micheltorena Street Elementary vs Charles H. Kim Elementary

Charles H. Kim Elementary ranks #9 out of 9,533 schools in California, placing it in the top 0.1% statewide. Micheltorena Street Elementary is no slouch — it holds the #116 statewide rank — but the gap between ninth and 116th is substantial. On the 10-point composite scale, Kim scores 9.6 to Micheltorena's 9.2, a difference that looks small but reflects a meaningful distance in the state distribution.

The academic scores tell a sharper story. Charles H. Kim Elementary posts a 9.5 academic score versus Micheltorena Street Elementary's 8.4 — a 1.1-point gap on a 10-point scale. That delta drives most of the overall rating difference, since both schools score identically on growth: each earns a 9.8/10, signaling that students at both campuses make strong year-over-year gains regardless of where they start. Kim's advantage is in absolute attainment, not in the pace of student progress.

The demographic profiles of these two schools diverge sharply. Micheltorena Street Elementary serves 366 students with 42% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Charles H. Kim Elementary enrolls 472 students and has an 88% free and reduced lunch rate — more than double Micheltorena's. That context makes Kim's 9.5 academic score particularly notable; the school is delivering top-decile results with a high-need population. Micheltorena's student-teacher ratio is 20.3:1 versus Kim's 18.2:1, meaning Kim families get roughly two additional students' worth of teacher attention per classroom on average.

Both schools cover the same grade span — kindergarten through fifth grade — and sit just 2.3 miles apart in Los Angeles, making them realistic alternatives for families in the Silver Lake and Koreatown corridors. The structural differences come down to campus size, resource context, and academic attainment level, with Charles H. Kim Elementary demonstrating that its high-need enrollment and its exceptional academic outcomes are not in conflict.