The 10 Best Elementary Schools on LA's Westside (2026)

So before you choose a home for its school, check how your child would get a place there.

The Westside has no single boundary that everyone uses, so we’ll give you the rule we used and you can check our work. We took ten zip codes: 90024, 90025, 90034, 90064, 90066, 90291, 90292, 90402, 90403 and 90404. Every public and charter elementary school with a score and an address in them is on the list, 30 schools in all.

Those ten leave out Pacific Palisades (90272) and three more zip codes some families count as the Westside: 90049, 90077 and 90045. Run the same rule there and three more schools would make the top ten: Kenter Canyon, Roscomare Road and Community Magnet Charter. They would place fourth, fifth and sixth in the wider list. If you’re looking there, start with those zip-code pages.

Which Westside elementary schools score highest?

The order comes from our Scope Score, a 0–100 score for each school. It combines state English and math test results in grades 3 through 5 with a growth comparison. Chronic absence, suspensions and English learners’ results on the state’s English-language test count too. A school’s percentile is the share of the California elementary schools we score that it scored above.

Data source: California Department of Education, 2025–26 state tests and school-climate data.

In the table, “Exceeded” means Advanced (exceeded), the top level on the current English and math reports. Its share is averaged across English and math in grades 3 through 5. It counts test results, not separate children. “Absent” is chronic absence: the share of students enrolled for at least 31 school days who missed at least 10% of the days they were enrolled.

All ten get the same label from our score, Strong. The first three sit within three points of one another. Then there is a larger gap before Castle Heights; from fourth through tenth, each school sits within two points of the next one. A school’s score often moves more than that in a year. We wouldn’t choose between two of them on a gap that size.

The highest-scoring elementary schools on Los Angeles’s Westside in 2025–26, by SchoolScope’s Scope Score, are Overland Avenue Elementary (LAUSD, 90064), Franklin Elementary (Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, 90403) and Clover Avenue Elementary (LAUSD, 90034). They lead 30 scored public and charter elementary schools in ten Westside zip codes: 90024, 90025, 90034, 90064, 90066, 90291, 90292, 90402, 90403 and 90404. The rest of the top ten are Castle Heights, Mar Vista, Canyon Charter, Broadway, Westwood Charter, Fairburn Avenue and Warner Avenue. All ten placed at the 95th percentile or higher among California elementary schools, and Overland placed at the 99th. The scores use California Department of Education data for 2025–26. That includes CAASPP English and math results in grades 3 through 5, chronic absence, suspensions and English learners’ ELPAC results. All ten take students from an attendance area. Canyon Charter and Westwood Charter also take families from outside their areas by application.

Where are these schools, and which ones does our address get us into?

A rank doesn’t tell you whether you can get in. Where we’ve checked, these schools fill their seats in one of three ways. Most are district neighborhood schools, where your home address decides which one you’re assigned. Canyon Charter and Westwood Charter are affiliated charters: LAUSD schools with more freedom over how they teach. Families in Canyon’s attendance area enroll directly, and Westwood gives children inside its boundary first priority. Families from outside either area apply through LAUSD’s Choices program. Edison and Goethe International admit by application.

A zip code doesn’t tell you which school you’d get; your attendance boundary does. In 90034, the five scored schools run from the 37th to the 98th percentile. Clover Avenue is the one at the top. In 90025, they run from the 27th to the 96th. LAUSD’s Resident School Identifier takes a full street address and returns the assigned school. The school nearest your door may not be the one the district assigns.

The magnet school on the map, Westside Global Awareness Magnet, is a K–8 school in Marina del Rey’s 90292. LAUSD takes magnet applications through its Choices program. We haven’t checked this school’s own rules this year, so its mark says “not checked.”

The same goes for three of the four other charter schools on the map: ICEF Vista, Citizens of the World Mar Vista and Ocean Charter. Goethe International’s admissions page says families don’t need to live in a particular neighborhood. It uses a lottery when applications outnumber seats.

What sets the top schools apart from each other?

Most of the top ten are schools you reach by address, so the choice between them comes down to how they differ on top scores, growth and attendance. These figures are from 2025–26 results.

Overland Avenue

Overland Avenue has the highest exceeded share of the 30 schools, 69.1%. Its chronic absence rate is 6.4%, though six schools in the full list have lower rates. It’s an LAUSD neighborhood school in 90064, not a charter or a magnet. For most families, the way in is an address inside its attendance area. If an address there is realistic for you, Overland is the school we’d look at first.

Franklin and Edison

Franklin and Edison, both in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, have above-typical growth positions. Franklin’s is well above typical and the highest of the 30; Edison’s is above typical. Edison sits just outside the top ten this year. The growth comparison sets a school’s fifth graders against its own third graders two years earlier. Then it compares that change with other California elementary schools. Families move in and out, so it isn’t exactly the same children, and it describes a direction, not what the school caused.

Edison doesn’t take children by address at all. It’s a dual-language school of choice, and it admits by application.

Clover Avenue

Clover Avenue has the third-highest exceeded share, 62.4%, after Overland and Canyon Charter. Its growth position is above typical: from third grade to fifth, its class improved more than classes at other California elementary schools.

Broadway and Coeur d’Alene Avenue

Broadway and Coeur d’Alene Avenue are both LAUSD schools in Venice’s 90291. Their chronic absence rates are 12.9% and 13.6%, respectively. Broadway’s exceeded share is higher, 57.8% to 52.8%. Broadway’s growth position is a little above typical. Coeur d’Alene’s tested class is too small for us to show a growth position this year. These are different comparisons: one counts test results at the top level, and the other follows a class from third grade to fifth. At either school, attendance is worth a direct question: what keeps children home, and what does the school do about it?

Mar Vista and the rest of the ten

Mar Vista has the second-lowest chronic absence of the 30, at 4.6%. The rest of the ten are Warner Avenue, Castle Heights, Westwood Charter, Fairburn Avenue and Canyon Charter.

Are the schools just below the top ten worth a look?

Yes. Warner Avenue, tenth, scores 74. Edison and Coeur d’Alene, next, both round to 72. Richland Avenue, thirteenth, rounds to 71. Treat the schools just below the line as a group worth a look, rather than letting the top-ten cutoff decide.

They take families in different ways. Edison admits by application; Coeur d’Alene and Richland Avenue are neighborhood schools. Richland shares Overland’s zip code. It has no growth position, because its tested class was too small for us to show one. Roosevelt, a Santa Monica-Malibu neighborhood school in 90403, sits fifteenth this year.

Fairburn Avenue in 90024 is now inside the ten: it scores 76 and places at the 96th percentile. Its exceeded share is 58.9%, its growth position is a little above typical, and its chronic absence is 9.0%. A school can move across our top-ten line without changing how families get a place there.

A school in this group may suit your child better than one in the top ten, especially if it’s the one your address gets.

Does Santa Monica-Malibu’s spending show up in these schools?

Roosevelt is one of four Santa Monica-Malibu schools on this list, with Franklin, Edison and McKinley. The other 26 are listed under Los Angeles Unified in the state’s data, including nine of the top ten and all six charter schools on the list. Our data can’t show that either district’s spending explains where its schools land.

Even which district spends more depends on the year. By the California Department of Education’s count, LAUSD spent $29,292 per student in average daily attendance in 2024–25, and Santa Monica-Malibu spent $25,939. Two years earlier, in 2022–23, the order was reversed: Santa Monica-Malibu $24,624, LAUSD $24,017. Federal figures for 2022–23, counted per enrolled student, also put Santa Monica-Malibu ahead, $24,954 to LAUSD’s $22,606. The state figures cover day-to-day costs paid from each district’s general fund. Average daily attendance is the total days students attended, divided by the days of instruction.

District figures also can’t tell you what one campus spends. We have school-by-school spending for most of the LAUSD schools here but not for Santa Monica-Malibu’s. So we can’t set Franklin’s budget beside Overland’s.

How do we actually enroll?

Check the exact address before you sign a lease or make an offer. For LAUSD neighborhood schools, type the full street address into the district’s Resident School Identifier. It lists the school that address is assigned to and the schools it can apply to. Then enroll with that school, which will ask for documents. Canyon Charter’s own list shows what a school can ask for. It wants proof of residence such as a property tax statement or lease, your child’s original birth certificate, your ID, immunization records and a utility bill. Before you count on a seat, ask the office what happens if your child’s grade is full.

In Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, you register at your neighborhood school and verify your address with documents. The district’s enrollment page links a school locator for checking an address. It also says the district may place some students at another school to ease overcrowding.

Edison works differently. Its admissions page calls it a school of choice that is “not a neighborhood or home school for anyone.” Families attend an orientation and apply within the application window. Families of current Edison TK–5 students who are applying for a sibling don’t need the orientation. Each new class needs enough Spanish and English speakers, so Edison screens language. For TK and kindergarten, it admits by a list of priorities. It uses a lottery to order its wait lists. Families living right around Edison are one of those priorities. That helps their chances, but it doesn’t assign them a seat. Applications that come in after the deadline lose their priority and are considered only if space is left. For the school year already under way, Edison is taking only two kinds of new students: native Spanish speakers and children from a similar 90:10 Spanish immersion program.

At Canyon Charter, families inside the attendance area enroll directly with the school’s packet. Families outside it apply through LAUSD’s Choices program, and on-time applications go into a public random drawing when they outnumber seats. Canyon’s page lists the current dates.

Independent charter schools run their own applications, outside Choices. LAUSD’s magnet schools take applications through Choices. Our charter guide has this year’s calendar.

What can’t this list tell us?

Once you know which schools are open to you, the numbers have done most of their work. They can’t tell you whether a classroom feels warm or anxious, or how a teacher handles a child who’s bored or behind. Programs your child might love, such as dual language or the arts, aren’t in them either. Neither is after-school care. For a working parent, what it costs and when it closes can matter as much as anything in the table. The ranking is one year’s snapshot, though its growth part looks back two years. A grade with only a few dozen children tested can swing from one year to the next.

We do have one thing the score leaves out. School profiles show CAASPP results by student group, such as students from low-income families, whenever a group is large enough to report. The Scope Score doesn’t fold them in. Open Overland’s profile or any other school above to see them.

Visit the schools you could actually attend. If you can, stand outside at pickup one afternoon. A few score points can’t tell you which one fits your child.

Explore all schools on SchoolScope →