Kipp Academy of Opportunity, Los Angeles CA

Original Research by School Decision on Kipp Academy of Opportunity

KIPP Academy of Opportunity is a small charter middle school on South Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles, serving grades five through eight. It is part of KIPP SoCal, a charter network that operates multiple schools across the region. The school enrolls a little under five hundred students, nearly all of them Black or Latino, and a very high share qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

The school sits in a community shaped by persistent economic hardship. Median household income in the broader Los Angeles area is solidly middle-class, yet the school's enrollment profile reflects deep local poverty. Housing values in the surrounding ZIP code are below the state benchmark, and rents are modest. KIPP Academy of Opportunity appears designed to serve students facing substantial educational barriers and to prepare them for continued schooling and work.

Academic performance is low. On California's standardized assessments in math and English language arts, proficiency rates are in the low to mid-range across fifth through eighth grade, with math performing slightly weaker than language arts. Science proficiency is also low. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among districts across Los Angeles County. These results describe a school where students have significant unmet learning needs and where accelerating reading and math skills remains a primary challenge.

KIPP SoCal has begun addressing reading instruction through a network-wide shift toward explicit phonics and science-of-reading methods, moving away from older guided-reading approaches. This overhaul rolled out fully across all KIPP regions by the 2024-25 school year and represents a deliberate, sustained effort to rebuild foundational literacy. That said, the results shown here reflect a school still working toward higher proficiency. A parent should ask KIPP Academy of Opportunity directly about how these literacy reforms are being implemented on-site and what early outcomes they are seeing.

The school operates within a charter accountability environment that has recently tightened. LAUSD denied renewal of a sister KIPP school over weak test performance, and in October 2025 renewed KIPP Academy of Opportunity along with other charters after a contested hearing. The network itself has also faced financial and enrollment pressure, closing three area campuses at the end of 2023-24. For families considering this school, stability and performance now hinge on a more stringent, outcomes-based renewal process.

KIPP Academy of Opportunity offers a structured middle-school pathway in a public charter setting. It is designed for students who live in the attendance area and whose families value the school's explicit focus on academic skill-building and college preparation. The low proficiency results indicate that students arrive with significant learning gaps and that the school's work to close them remains ongoing. Students who thrive at KIPP tend to respond to clear expectations, regular assessment feedback, and a goal-oriented environment. For families weighing this choice, the school's real strength lies not in current test scores but in its strategic commitment to literacy reform, its clear mission focus, and its engagement with a community that has few other options. A parent may want to visit the school, speak with current families, and ask how recent curriculum changes are translating into classroom practice and early wins.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 514%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 621%

School 21% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 723%

School 23% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 818%

School 18% · district not reported

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 522%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 628%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 727%

School 27% · district not reported

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 812%

School 12% · district not reported

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

This schoolDistrict average, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income19%3 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income21%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income28%Higher-income33%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income14%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income16%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income17%Higher-income25%8 pp gap