Robert F. Kennedy Elementary vs Malabar Street Elementary

Robert F. Kennedy Elementary holds a 9.2/10 overall rating against Malabar Street Elementary's 8.8/10 — a 0.4-point gap that translates to a meaningful difference in state rank: Kennedy sits at #164 of 9,533 California schools, while Malabar Street ranks #446 of the same pool. Both schools perform well above the statewide median, but Kennedy's higher position reflects consistently stronger outcomes across multiple scoring dimensions, not just one standout metric.

On academic proficiency, Robert F. Kennedy Elementary scores 8.0/10 versus Malabar Street Elementary's 7.7/10. The growth gap is narrower but points the same direction: Kennedy earns a 9.8/10 growth score to Malabar Street's 9.5/10. That near-perfect growth figure at Kennedy signals that students are advancing faster than predicted given their starting points — a particularly meaningful indicator for families weighing long-term academic trajectory over a single snapshot of proficiency.

The two schools serve identical grade bands — KG through 06 — but differ substantially in scale and classroom density. Robert F. Kennedy Elementary enrolls 176 students against Malabar Street Elementary's 420, and that size difference shows up in the student-teacher ratio: 16.0:1 at Kennedy versus 19.1:1 at Malabar Street, a gap of more than three students per teacher. Both schools serve predominantly high-need populations, with free and reduced lunch rates of 93% at Kennedy and 97% at Malabar Street, confirming that both schools are achieving strong outcomes with similar socioeconomic demographics.

Sitting just 1.1 miles apart in Los Angeles, these two schools share a neighborhood context but diverge on the metrics that most directly affect daily classroom experience. Kennedy's smaller enrollment means fewer students per teacher and a tighter-knit school community. Malabar Street's larger enrollment may come with broader extracurricular offerings and more peer diversity within a single building — a trade-off that depends entirely on what a family prioritizes in an elementary setting.