Cowan Avenue Elementary

Cowan Avenue Elementary is an elementary-level community of tight-knit scale in Los Angeles, California, run under Los Angeles Unified, serveing 377 students in grades K through 6.

Cowan Avenue Elementary is one of 784 schools operated by Los Angeles Unified, a district that hosts 406,887 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Cowan Avenue Elementary reports that 61% of the student body identifies as Black. Other groups include 19% Hispanic, 18% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 8% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 21 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.9:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Cowan Avenue Elementary tighter than the state norm the norm. Around 63% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy.

With demographic context factored in, Cowan Avenue Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 41.7%, the actual is 53.3%, a residual of +11.5 points.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Los Angeles County indicate median household income runs about $90,112, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Cowan Avenue Elementary is one of 2244 public schools in Los Angeles County (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students).

The closest other public school is Orville Wright Engineering and Design Magnet, roughly 0.3 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Cowan Avenue Elementary comes 4th of 6 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 54.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a downtown area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Cowan Avenue Elementary has edged up 15%, going from 328 students in 2018 to 377 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment fell from 78% to 61% over that span. Class-load math has tightened: from 19.3:1 in 2018 to 17.9:1 in 2025.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.