Animo James B. Taylor Charter Middle

Animo James B. Taylor Charter Middle is a public charter school serving about 460 students in grades 6-8 in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where it faces significant academic challenges and serves a community with high economic need.

Academically, the school performs below state averages, with less than 30% of students proficient in English and less than 20% proficient in Math and Science. However, when compared to other middle schools in the immediate area, its performance is similar to several neighbors like Charles Drew Middle and Bret Harte Preparatory Middle, though it is significantly outperformed by exceptional schools like Willowbrook Middle and some Alliance College-Ready Middle Academy 4 charter schools, showing that strong results are possible in the area. The school has a chronic absenteeism rate of about 30%, which is an improvement from past years and is actually lower than many nearby schools, suggesting a positive trend.

Animo James B. Taylor spends over $24,000 per student, which is more than several nearby charter schools, and it has improved its student-teacher ratio to about 19-to-1, offering smaller classes than most in the area. Interestingly, the data shows that higher spending does not automatically mean higher test scores locally. The school shows promising effectiveness in supporting some vulnerable student groups and has a notable pattern where its 8th graders perform better in math than its younger students. Key areas for the school to focus on include addressing a significant performance gap between male and female students and learning from the attendance strategies of higher-performing nearby schools.