Vermont Avenue Elementary vs Virginia Road Elementary

Virginia Road Elementary outranks Vermont Avenue Elementary by 0.4 points overall — 9.0 versus 8.6 out of 10 — but the more telling gap is in state context. Virginia Road Elementary sits at #288 of 9,533 California elementary schools, placing it in the top 3% statewide. Vermont Avenue Elementary ranks #698 of 9,533, which is still a strong top-8% showing, but trails its neighbor by 410 positions. For parents weighing two solidly performing schools just 2.7 miles apart in Los Angeles, that ranking gap is meaningful.

Academically, Virginia Road Elementary scores 8.4 out of 10 versus Vermont Avenue Elementary's 7.8, a six-tenths difference that reflects consistently higher proficiency results. Growth tells a slightly different story: both schools deliver exceptional student progress, with Vermont Avenue Elementary at 9.5 and Virginia Road Elementary at 9.9 out of 10. The growth scores signal that students at both campuses are advancing faster than baseline expectations, and the gap between them is narrow — less than half a point separating two schools that are each outpacing the vast majority of California elementaries.

Vermont Avenue Elementary enrolls 356 students compared to Virginia Road Elementary's 209, nearly 70% more students on campus. The student-teacher ratio reflects that size difference: Vermont Avenue Elementary runs 20.9 students per teacher versus Virginia Road Elementary's 19.0, a nearly two-student-per-classroom difference that can affect instructional attention. On economic need, the schools are nearly identical — free and reduced lunch eligibility sits at 90% at Vermont Avenue Elementary and 94% at Virginia Road Elementary, indicating both campuses serve predominantly low-income families and are navigating similar resource environments.

Both schools serve grades kindergarten through fifth grade, so families with children at any elementary age have a direct like-for-like comparison. Virginia Road Elementary's smaller enrollment creates a tighter-knit campus footprint, while Vermont Avenue Elementary's larger student body may offer broader extracurricular variety and a more diverse peer mix within the same grade levels. Neither school holds a program or level advantage over the other based on available data — the differentiation comes down to size, class density, and that 410-position state ranking gap.