Emerson Elementary, Compton CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Emerson Elementary

Emerson Elementary sits on East Caldwell Street in Compton, a city in southern Los Angeles County anchored by manufacturing, logistics, and a cultural identity built around its contributions to hip-hop and R&B. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade, which is a wider span than a typical elementary school and means it carries students all the way through middle school before they move on to high school. It is a regular public school within Compton Unified.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial Black minority and very small shares of other groups. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Emerson firmly in the high-economic-need category. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed.

State assessment results come from California's CAASPP Smarter Balanced tests and the California Science Test, reported for the 2024-25 school year. In English Language Arts, proficiency is strongest in the early grades and drops as students move through the upper elementary and middle school years, with the seventh grade showing the thinnest results. Math follows a similar pattern: third grade sits meaningfully above the others, while fifth through eighth grade results are notably lower, with seventh grade again the weakest point. Science proficiency, tested at fifth and eighth grade, is low at both levels, with eighth grade particularly so. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Los Angeles County. A parent whose child is approaching the middle school years may want to ask the school directly about how it supports the transition and what academic intervention looks like in grades six through eight, where the numbers thin out most visibly.

Trend data is limited to a single year, so there is no multi-year picture to draw on. Whether these results represent a recent change, a long-standing pattern, or a school working through specific circumstances is not something the available data can answer.

On the district side, Compton Unified has been moving through a notable period of facilities investment. Voters approved a major bond in 2022 to fund repairs and construction across the district, and in June 2026 they approved another bond specifically to build a new Dominguez High School. A new Compton High School campus opened for the 2025-26 school year, replacing the original building and designed around project-based learning. The district also opened a new school, C-Tech, using the P-TECH model, which allows students to earn a high school diploma and a tuition-free associate degree in fields like biotechnology and cybersecurity. For a family with a child currently at Emerson, these changes shape what the high school landscape will look like when that child is ready to move on.

The neighborhood around Emerson is urban and walkable by most measures, particularly near the Metro A Line, which runs through the city and connects to the broader Los Angeles rail network. Parks, the county library branch, and bus connections are accessible. Housing in the area has risen in value over the past year, though home prices remain well below the California statewide median. Affordability is a real constraint in this market: publicly reported data notes that median household income in Compton sits below the threshold needed to absorb the cost of newly built units without financial strain, a pattern common to much of the Los Angeles basin. Rental cost data was not available for this specific zip code. The city is actively adding affordable and supportive housing units, with several projects recently completed or under construction.

No information on programs, extracurriculars, staffing ratios, attendance rates, or discipline data was available for Emerson specifically, so those dimensions are missing from this picture. A parent would be well served by contacting the school directly to understand what support structures exist for students who are struggling academically, and what the transition to sixth grade looks like for kids who have been there since kindergarten.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 46% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 33% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 44% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 717%

School 17% · District 43% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 40% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 50% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 47% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 531%

School 31% · District 45% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 50% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 57% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 53% · ▼ 19 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 21% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 89%

School 9% · District 19% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

This schoolCompton Unified, 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.