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Middle school enrollment has consistently declined over the past 10 years in district schools. One school lost 858 students. But charters and magnet programs are growing. 

LA Unified is attempting to quell the enrollment drop-off as 133,000 students have left the district since 2006-07 and middle schools have emerged as a key battleground.

During the past 10 years, the district lost more than 41,581 students from fifth to sixth grade. Even after accounting for the growth of charter schools, nearly 15,000 students simply vanished from the public school system.

LA School Report obtained enrollment data for each district and charter school since 2011-12. The data on district and charter middle schools can be downloaded and searched here. Check out your own school’s enrollment change over the last five years.

Read more: Exclusive: Where have all the middle school students gone? The key battlefield in LAUSD’s enrollment drop

Here are some highlights from the data:

DISTRICT SCHOOLS

The district middle schools with the largest enrollment declines from 2011-12 to 2015-16 (not including enrollment in magnet programs):

1. Gage Middle School lost 858 students
2. Obama Global Preparation Academy lost 613 students
3. Nightingale Middle School lost 570 students
4. South Gate Middle School lost 558 students
5. Wilmington Middle School lost 548 students
6. Peary Middle School lost 532 students
7. Gompers Middle School lost 528 students
8. Sutter Middle School lost 525 students
9. Virgil Middle School lost 512 students
10. Stevenson Middle School lost 481 students

Just 12 of 83 comprehensive middle schools increased enrollment in the five-year period. Three middle schools opened during the timeframe: Walnut Park Middle School STEM Academy, Walnut Park Middle School School of Social Justice and Service Learning, which both opened in 2012 and last year enrolled 544 and 491 students, respectively, and Studio School, which opened in 2013-14 and enrolled 264 students last year.

The district middle schools with the largest enrollment increases from 2011-12 to 2015-16 (not including magnet programs) were:

1. Nava Learning Academy School of Business and Tech gained 134 students
2. Nava Learning Academy School of Arts and Culture gained 131 students
3. Edison Middle School gained 120 students
4. Hale Charter Academy gained 62 students
5. Orchard Academies 2B gained 49 students
6. Kim Academy gained 47 students
7. Northridge Middle School gained 47 students
8. Orchard Academies 2C gained 34 students
9. Madison Middle School gained 29 students
10. Nobel Charter Middle School gained 27 students

MAGNETS

One magnet program at Wright Middle School in Westchester closed after the 2012-13 school year, which had enrolled 479 students. The school reinvented itself in 2013 as a STEAM magnet school, which enrolled about 700 students last year.

Previously a comprehensive middle school that enrolled about 1,200 students in 2011, Sun Valley Middle School transformed into three magnet schools in 2013. Its Biomedical Sciences, Engineering and Leadership magnet enrolled 463 students last year, including some high school students. The Engineering, Arts and Technology for Global Progress magnet enrolled 437 students, and its Environmental Studies Through Arts and Sciences enrolled 452 students last year.

Five other magnet programs opened at district middle schools in the past five years at Nightingale Middle School, Le Conte Middle School, Virgil Middle School, Dana Middle School and Bancroft Middle School.

Here are some magnet programs that have had enrollment increases in the past five years:

1. Eagle Rock Jr. High School Gifted, Highly Gifted and High Ability Magnet (which includes some high school grades) gained 339 students
2. King Middle School Environmental Studies Magnet gained 216 students
3. King Middle School Film and Media Magnet gained 182 students
4. Dodson Middle School Gifted-High Ability Magnet gained 137 students

CHARTERS

Eighteen new independent charter middle schools authorized by LA Unified opened within the past five years, district data show. The largest school is Aspire Centennial College Preparatory Academy in Huntington Park, which opened in 2013 and enrolled 542 students last year.

Eight charter middle schools closed within the past five years.

One of those schools was Urban Village Middle School in Baldwin Hills, which opened for one year with 68 students and then closed after it hadn’t addressed several violations identified by LA Unified’s Charter Schools Division and the school board revoked its charter.

Some Partnerships to Uplift Communities charter schools saw big enrollment gains, but one reason could be because at least two of the schools combined their middle and high school programs.

Here are the charter middle schools with the biggest enrollment gains from 2011-12 to 2015-16:

1. PUC Community Charter Middle School gained 423 students
2. PUC Triumph Charter Academy gained 395 students
3. Amino Westside Charter Middle School gained 341 students
4. Watts Learning Center Charter Middle School gained 220 students
5. Amino Jefferson Charter Middle School gained 175 students
6. Valley Charter Middle School gained 145 students
7. James Jordan Middle School gained 130 students
8. PUC Nueva Esperanza Charter Academy gained 93 students
9. Amino Western Charter Middle School gained 93 students
10. Amino Wheatley Charter Middle School gained 80 students

Here are the charter middle schools with the biggest enrollment declines (20 students or more) from 2011-12 to 2015-16 that did not close:

1. PUC Santa Rosa Charter Academy lost 91 students
2. Alliance College Ready Middle Academy #4 lost 28 students.