Twin Lakes Elementary, El Monte CA

Original Research by School Decision on Twin Lakes Elementary

Twin Lakes Elementary serves grades two through eight in El Monte, a densely populated area in the San Gabriel Valley with a large Hispanic and Asian population, significant transit-oriented development around the El Monte station, and a working-class and lower-middle-income character. The school sits within Mountain View Elementary School District, which underwent a major structural change in 2021 when it closed four schools and reconfigured the remaining campuses into a K-8 model, reducing the overall district from twelve schools to eight. That reconfiguration is a lasting reality a family would navigate: it changed which neighborhoods feed to which campuses and reflects an ongoing enrollment decline that continues to shape district decisions. Currently the district is working through decisions about the future use of the formerly closed Madrid and Kranz school sites.

Twin Lakes' enrollment is small to moderate for its grade span, with the strongest attendance in the middle grades and a much smaller second-grade cohort. The vast majority of students come from families meeting federal criteria for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating high economic need within the school community. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with smaller Asian, Black, and White populations. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status were not available.

Academic performance is below grade on state testing across both English language arts and mathematics. In ELA, proficiency ranges widely by grade, with grade five standing out notably higher and grades three and seven notably lower. Math proficiency is consistently low across all tested grades, peaking in grade five but remaining modest even there. Science testing data exists for only grades five and eight; grade five shows somewhat better performance than grade eight. Overall academic proficiency places the school in the bottom quartile among schools in Los Angeles County. The profile shows only one year of state testing data, so trend information is not available to assess whether the school is moving up, holding steady, or declining further.

The school draws from a housing market where homeownership is significant but rental costs have risen markedly and affordability pressures are substantial. El Monte itself is pursuing transit-oriented growth near its major station and downtown, with new mixed-use and housing projects recently completed or underway, but the city overall maintains limited park space per resident and has long battled housing affordability challenges despite building more affordable units than many of its neighbors.

Twin Lakes Elementary presents as a school serving a high-need, economically challenged student population with significant English learner prevalence (though counts were not available) and academic outcomes that fall well short of grade-level standards. A parent should look into the school's specific literacy and mathematics support approaches, staff stability, and any targeted interventions underway in the middle grades where the school serves its largest cohorts. The K-8 model is worth understanding directly: how do grade transitions work, and how do instruction and peer grouping differ between younger and older cohorts under one roof.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 23% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 20% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 19% · ▲ 12 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 22% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 20% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 14% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 39%

School 9% · District 25% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 29% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 33% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 39% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 33% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 16% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 812%

School 12% · District 12%

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

This schoolMountain View Elementary, 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 8Lower-income30%Higher-income50%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income18%Higher-income43%25 pp gap