Pinewood Avenue Elementary, Tujunga CA

Original Research by School Decision on Pinewood Avenue Elementary

Pinewood Avenue Elementary is a small neighborhood school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in Tujunga, a residential foothill community within Los Angeles. The school enrolls a small number of students, drawn from a high-poverty area: the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of White, Black, Asian, and multiracial students.

Academic performance is below the midpoint among schools in Los Angeles County. On the 2024-25 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, proficiency in English language arts stood at around one-third of students across tested grades, with fourth grade showing the highest proficiency and fifth grade notably lower. Math proficiency was even lower, ranging from around one-fifth in third and fourth grades down to around one-fifth in fifth grade. In science, fifth-grade proficiency fell to single digits. The school has only one year of data available, so longer-term trends cannot be assessed.

Tujunga itself is a self-contained neighborhood tucked into the foothills at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, with a quiet, small-town character and tree-lined residential streets. The area is car-dependent; walkability is minimal outside of the Foothill Boulevard corridor, where most local errands and retail can be found. Transit access to the broader Los Angeles region is limited, with the nearest Metro rail station roughly an hour's drive away. The neighborhood shares civic institutions, including a library and high school, with neighboring Sunland, reinforcing the sense of a separate enclave rather than urban density.

The housing market in the zip code reflects broader Los Angeles County prices, with home values well above the state average and rents rising modestly year over year. A parent may want to look into the current property-tax implications of Measure US, a major school facilities bond approved by Los Angeles voters, which will be repaid through property tax increases lasting several decades and will affect long-term housing costs for any family relocating to the district.

At the district level, Los Angeles Unified has implemented an all-day cellphone ban, effective since February 2025, restricting student use of phones, smartwatches, and earbuds throughout the entire school day, including lunch and breaks. The district has also expanded and revised its Black Student Achievement Plan, which funds culturally responsive curriculum and additional counseling and climate staff at targeted schools. These are district-wide shifts that shape daily school life for all families.

The school is a regular public elementary serving a neighborhood with high economic need. A parent visiting would see a very small campus in a hillside community, with most of the student body facing significant academic barriers. Understanding the specific instructional approach the school is taking to address proficiency gaps, as well as any specialized support services or intervention programs, would be important conversations to have with school leadership.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 48% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 43% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 36% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 44% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 45% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 47% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 510%

School 10% · District 29% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 18 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.