Los Angeles Unified School District

Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the largest public school systems in the United States, serving 419,929 students across 785 schools in the greater Los Angeles area. The sheer scale means parents have significant choice — from neighborhood elementaries to magnet programs — but navigating that range requires knowing where performance concentrates.

Of the district's 785 schools, 769 carry a ranked score, averaging 7.5 out of 10. That average is a useful baseline: schools scoring above it are outperforming the typical LAUSD experience, and several do so by a considerable margin. Sierra Vista Elementary leads the district with a 9.8 out of 10, the highest score among all ranked schools. Third Street Elementary and Charles H. Kim Elementary each score 9.6, while Braddock Drive Elementary and Canfield Avenue Elementary both earn 9.5. All five are elementary schools, signaling that the district's strongest outcomes at the foundational level cluster at the top of a competitive peer group.

Parents evaluating schools here should pay close attention to individual school scores relative to that 7.5 district average. A school at or above 9.5 is operating well above the norm for LAUSD — itself a large, diverse urban system where strong performance carries additional weight as a comparative signal. The gap between the district average and the top performers is nearly two and a half points, which is meaningful when assessing where a child is likely to get the most academically.

With 785 schools total, LAUSD offers enough range that geography and assignment boundaries matter as much as preference. Parents researching elementary options in particular should prioritize schools by their ranked scores, cross-reference with proximity and enrollment availability, and use the district average of 7.5 as a floor rather than a target. The five top-rated elementaries listed here — all scoring 9.5 or higher — represent a concrete starting point for families who want data-backed choices in one of the country's most complex school systems.