Beulah Payne P-8 Steam Academy, Inglewood CA

Original Research by School Decision on Beulah Payne P-8 Steam Academy

Beulah Payne P-8 STEAM Academy is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school in Inglewood, a dense southwestern Los Angeles neighborhood anchored increasingly by the SoFi Stadium and entertainment district and served by the relatively new Metro K Line transit. The school enrolls a substantial and relatively stable population for its grade band, drawn overwhelmingly from the immediate neighborhood.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a smaller African American population and very few white or Asian students. The school serves a high-poverty area: most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school has no reported data on students with disabilities or English learners, which is a gap a parent may want to ask about directly.

Academic performance is the critical picture here. State testing data from the most recent year shows proficiency in English language arts averaging across the school's tested grades in the low-to-mid range, with notable variation by grade. Grade five performed notably higher in ELA; grade three, four, and six also showed measurable proficiency. Grades seven and eight, by contrast, showed considerably lower ELA results. Mathematics proficiency is substantially weaker across all grades tested, clustering in the low single digits to low twenties, with particularly sharp declines in the upper-middle grades (six and seven). Science testing in grades five and eight similarly reflected low proficiency rates. Across the three subjects and all tested grades, Beulah Payne sits in the bottom quartile among schools in Los Angeles County. A parent should understand that this school is not meeting most of its students at grade level in these core academic areas.

The school markets itself around STEAM (science, technology, arts, and mathematics), a design intent that may or may not be reflected in how instruction is deployed. The low science and math results suggest the STEAM mission is not currently translating into higher achievement in those domains. It is worth asking the school directly what STEAM programming looks like in practice and what recent steps, if any, have been taken to improve outcomes in math and science.

Inglewood as a place is in flux. The city is experiencing rapid development around the stadium complex and the K Line, with significant new residential construction underway and property values rising. That growth brings both opportunity and displacement risk for renters and families with modest incomes. The district itself, however, is navigating serious structural challenges. Inglewood Unified has been under state receivership longer than any other district in California, meaning an appointed administrator, not an elected school board, has made major decisions for years. A state review underway may return local control to the board as early as 2027. The district is also repaying a substantial emergency loan and continues to face declining enrollment and chronic absenteeism. Those financial and governance pressures have driven school closures and consolidations. A parent considering this school should weigh the uncertain governance transition and the district's ongoing financial recovery alongside the school's current academic performance.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 327%

School 27% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 22% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 20% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 612%

School 12% · District 14% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 76%

School 6% · District 15% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 20% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 31% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 27% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 31% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 25% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 714%

School 14% · District 36% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 45% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 14% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 24% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

This schoolInglewood 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.