The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Seventy-fourth Street Elementary
Seventy-Fourth Street Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in South Los Angeles, in a neighborhood with deep economic need. The school's enrollment of about three hundred seventy students is almost entirely from households qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, and the student body is roughly equally divided between Black and Hispanic students, with a small share identifying as multiracial and very few white students. The school sits within Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves the sprawling city and its immediate surroundings.
On state assessments in 2024-25, the school's performance falls plainly below where most families would want it to be. In mathematics, proficiency across grades three through five averaged around four in ten students meeting standard; by fifth grade, proficiency dropped to about one in three. In English language arts, the school averaged around four in ten across tested grades, with third grade at about three in ten and grades four and five each around four in five. In science, tested only in fifth grade, about one in seven students met proficiency. Against the set of districts across Los Angeles County with available data, the school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint. The school has only one year of current data, so trend information is not yet available.
The neighborhood around West 74th Street in the 90047 zip code reflects constrained economic conditions. Housing values in the area are below both the state and national median, though they have declined modestly year over year. Monthly rents are substantially below state average and stable, but still consume roughly half of what the U.S. Census estimates as local median household income. For a family considering a move into the area, those rents would represent a significant share of budget. Locally, unemployment stands near the national average, though the county's largest employers—LA County government, LAUSD, UCLA, and Kaiser Permanente among them—anchor the broader regional economy.
The school operates within LAUSD, which has undertaken major recent changes that touch daily life. In February 2025, the district implemented an all-day ban on student cellphone, smartwatch, and earbud use, including during lunch and breaks; most schools store devices in lockable pouches. Additionally, voters approved Measure US, a large school facilities bond that will raise property taxes over many years to fund building repairs and upgrades across the aging district portfolio. At the classroom level, the Black Student Achievement Plan, which funds culturally responsive curriculum and additional counselors and support staff at targeted schools, was refocused in 2024 to broaden eligibility beyond race-based criteria, and the board increased its 2025-26 funding.
Los Angeles as a city is in active transformation. Downtown is undergoing major mixed-use development ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics. The broader city is working through a statewide housing crisis via recent rezoning ordinances and new development incentives. Most neighborhoods, including South Los Angeles, remain car-dependent despite pockets of walkability around transit corridors and commercial strips. A family choosing this school would be placing a child in a high-poverty, almost entirely students-of-color elementary serving a neighborhood in flux, with academic outcomes notably below standard and limited visible trend data. Parents considering enrollment may want to speak directly with the school about its academic improvement initiatives and support systems for literacy and mathematics, and to understand what supplemental resources families might seek elsewhere.
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