Washington Irving Mid Sch Math Music and Engr Magnet, Los Angeles CA

Original Research by School Decision on Washington Irving Mid Sch Math Music and Engr Magnet

Washington Irving Middle School Math Music and Engineering Magnet is a middle school serving grades six through eight in Los Angeles Unified. It enrolls a school population that is substantially Hispanic, with a notable share of white students and smaller populations of Asian, multiracial, and Black students. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the neighborhood.

The school sits within LAUSD's sprawling footprint as an alternative school with a stated focus on mathematics, music, and engineering. As a magnet designation within the public system, it is designed to draw enrollment based on a specialized academic pathway rather than assignment by attendance zone alone.

On recent state assessments, Washington Irving's performance shows a pattern that is instructive. In English language arts, proficiency runs stronger, with sixth graders reaching a solid level and proficiency declining across seventh and eighth grade. Mathematics proficiency is noticeably lower, starting above the midpoint in sixth grade but dropping substantially in grades seven and eight. Science proficiency, measured only at grade eight, sits below half. These numbers place the school's overall proficiency index above the midpoint relative to other schools within Los Angeles County, a positioning that reflects strength in language arts offset by weaker math and science results.

The gap between sixth-grade math performance and the performance of older cohorts suggests either that the mathematics curriculum does not hold gains as students advance, or that students struggle with increasingly complex material as they progress. For families drawn to a magnet emphasizing engineering and mathematics, this is a meaningful question to explore directly with the school. A parent weighing enrollment should ask what the school attributes the decline to, what remediation or acceleration happens in real time, and how the magnet's engineering focus connects to mathematics instruction.

The school's enrollment is small relative to the full middle school population across the district, and it sits in a dense urban area of Los Angeles where housing costs are high and family incomes, while variable, are constrained by the broader regional affordability crisis. The neighborhood around Estara Avenue reflects the city's character as a polycentric, mixed-use area with rapid change driven by housing pressure and zoning evolution.

LAUSD as a district is in active transition. The district passed Measure US, a major school facilities bond that will fund repairs and upgrades to aging buildings over a long repayment period, raising property taxes on families in the district. In February 2025, the district implemented an all-day cellphone ban, a policy that affects daily school culture and student-parent communication throughout the school day. These are ongoing, district-wide factors that shape the environment and expectations for any LAUSD family.

Washington Irving offers a magnet pathway organized around a stated academic theme, serving families who seek that specialized focus. The proficiency data suggests the engineering and mathematics emphasis has not yet translated into consistently strong results in mathematics across the middle grades, a detail worth investigating as part of your evaluation.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 35% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 34% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 32% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 675%

School 75% · District 46% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 46% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 858%

School 58% · District 45% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 27% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 43% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

This schoolLos Angeles 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income64%Higher-income88%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income82%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income80%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income77%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income35%Higher-income71%36 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income37%Higher-income72%36 pp gap