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Paramount, California - 20 schools
An equity score of 81/100 ranks Paramount Unified #77 of 1517 districts in California (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $18,707 per pupil, Paramount Unified ranks #314 of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending (California districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
12,730
Total Enrollment
20
Schools
$18,707
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Paramount Unified operates 20 public schools serving 12,730 students, placing it in the mid-size range in California. The school portfolio breaks down into 12 elementary, 3 high, 3 middle, 2 combined schools, giving families a clear picture of grade-band coverage before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Los Angeles County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,707 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 1862 California districts by per-pupil spending. See how California compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 17.4% local, 67.2% state, and 15.4% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 81/100, ranked #77 of 1517 in California against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 2 of 20 schools offering Advanced Placement (25 AP courses district-wide), a 344.3:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 56.5% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 86.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% African American, 1.3% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Captain Raymond Collins, with a diversity index of 60.5/100.
Its largest campus is Paramount High, enrolling 3,400 students (29% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Paramount Unified Community Day, at 14 students, a 243x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Paramount High accounts for 26.7% of all Paramount Unified student enrollment
That concentration means Paramount Unified-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Paramount Unified school enrollment varies 243× across entities
Paramount Unified school enrollment ranges from 14 students (lowest) to 3,400 students (highest), a spread of 3,386 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Paramount Unified has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 79.4% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility — including this one — receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Paramount Unified student-counselor ratio is 344:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Variation between sub-units within Paramount Unified is typically wider than the Paramount Unified-aggregate figure suggests.
Paramount Unified chronic absenteeism rate is 56.5% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.