Camino Nuevo Elementary #3, Los Angeles CA

Original Research by School Decision on Camino Nuevo Elementary #3

Camino Nuevo Elementary #3 is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Cordova Street in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, near USC. It operates within the broader Camino Nuevo Charter Academy network and is authorized by LAUSD. The school's most defining feature is its dual language program: publicly reported information describes a structured biliteracy model in which students develop oral language, reading, and writing in both Spanish and English across the elementary and middle grades, with English phonics instruction woven in from the earliest grades. For families seeking a bilingual academic pathway, this is the school's central offer.

The student body is nearly entirely Hispanic, and nearly every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the higher-poverty campuses within the Los Angeles area. English learner data was not available in what we reviewed. A full-day dual-language Transitional Kindergarten, publicly reported as feeding into the school's TK through twelfth grade pathway, gives families the option of an earlier bilingual entry point.

State testing results from the most recent school year are available for grades three through eight in English language arts and math, and for grades five and eight in science. In ELA, results across grades are mixed: fourth and seventh graders show the strongest performance, with eighth grade reaching just above half of tested students meeting or exceeding standard, while third and fifth grade results are lower. Across all ELA grades combined, roughly two in five students scored proficient. Math results are weaker overall. Third and fourth grades sit just under a third of students meeting standard; fifth and sixth grade results are noticeably lower; seventh grade is the relative high point; and eighth grade sits below a third. The schoolwide math proficiency across all tested grades combined lands in the low-to-mid range. Science results follow a similar pattern: the eighth grade score is meaningfully stronger than the fifth grade result, though neither is high in absolute terms. Placed within the comparison set of districts in Los Angeles County, the school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile. A parent who wants to understand how these results look for specific student groups, or how they have changed over time, should ask the school directly, as multi-year trend data was not available and subgroup breakdowns were not in the data we reviewed.

One governance matter is worth knowing about. Publicly reported LAUSD oversight documents show that in late 2024 the district's Charter Schools Division issued a Notice to Cure to the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy governing board related to a student expulsion process that did not follow applicable policies. Because the school's authorization depends on its standing with LAUSD, a parent may want to ask the school directly about the current status of this matter and any steps taken in response.

The school sits in a part of Los Angeles where housing costs are well above the national midpoint and also above the California statewide benchmark, though values in the immediate zip code have edged down slightly over the past year. Rents have moved modestly upward. The broader city is in an active development and rezoning period, with the city working through a large housing production goal tied to state requirements and major projects reshaping areas near downtown.

Los Angeles as a city varies sharply in character by neighborhood. The area around the school is urban and dense, with transit access through the Metro system. Major employers across the region span county government, healthcare, aerospace and defense, entertainment, and higher education, with USC sitting close by. Walkability and transit access are stronger in this part of the city than in much of the San Fernando Valley or outer residential districts.

Chronic absenteeism data was not available, nor was a graduation rate, though the school does not serve high school grades and a graduation rate would not apply here.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 331%

School 31% · district not reported

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 616%

School 16% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 326%

School 26% · district not reported

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 443%

School 43% · district not reported

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 637%

School 37% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 852%

School 52% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Science

Grade 512%

School 12% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 837%

School 37% · district not reported

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

This schoolDistrict average, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income41%Higher-income14%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income25%32 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income16%Higher-income14%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income25%4 pp gap