Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Los Angeles CA

Original Research by School Decision on Camino Nuevo Charter Academy

Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is a kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school in Los Angeles with a nearly universal enrollment of Hispanic students in a densely urban, economically under-resourced neighborhood. The school serves about six hundred students, the vast majority of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. This is a Spanish-speaking community, and the school operates within a charter network that includes a high school campus and is actively building a teacher residency program focused on bilingual instruction and educator diversity.

The school's academic performance reflects the challenges of its student population and setting. In mathematics, proficiency varies by grade, with results ranging from low proficiency in grade five to upper-modest proficiency in grade eight. In English language arts, proficiency is similarly uneven, with grades three through five showing low performance, a notable improvement at grade six reaching into the higher-modest range, then declining again at grades seven and eight. Science proficiency is low across the tested grades. Overall proficiency sits in the bottom quartile of schools in Los Angeles County, meaning performance is well below the median for the county's charter and public schools. A parent may want to look further into the school's curriculum approach, intervention strategies, and progress monitoring to understand how the school supports students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards.

The school is part of a charter network with an active institutional life. In late 2025, the district renewed the charter for Camino Nuevo's high school campus, confirming the operator's continued commitment to serving this population through secondary grades. More recently, the network launched the Avance Teacher Residency program in partnership with Loyola Marymount University and community organizations, creating pathways for bilingual educators and special education teachers. This effort matters for continuity: it signals an intentional strategy to build teaching talent that reflects the students the school serves, which families focused on bilingual education and cultural match may view as a meaningful institutional priority.

The housing market in this Los Angeles zip code shows median home values below the California statewide benchmark, and monthly rents are also below state average, reflecting a more affordable neighborhood within Los Angeles. This area serves families with modest incomes, most of whom are Spanish-speaking and Latino. The school's near-universal free and reduced-price lunch eligibility underscores the economic circumstances of the community it serves.

Camino Nuevo is a small, hyperlocal school embedded in a working-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. It is not a school chosen for strong academic performance on state tests. It is a school chosen by and for a community, with bilingual offerings, cultural alignment, and deliberate efforts to employ teachers who understand and come from that community. For families prioritizing these elements and willing to engage with the school on academic growth, it may fit. For families whose primary concern is high proficiency on state assessments, the data suggests looking elsewhere.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 337%

School 37% · district not reported

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

Grade 437%

School 37% · district not reported

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 518%

School 18% · district not reported

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

Grade 642%

School 42% · district not reported

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

Grade 738%

School 38% · district not reported

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

Grade 847%

School 47% · district not reported

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · district not reported

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · district not reported

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

Grade 526%

School 26% · district not reported

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · district not reported

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

Grade 738%

School 38% · district not reported

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

Grade 845%

School 45% · district not reported

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

Science

Grade 515%

School 15% · district not reported

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

Grade 823%

School 23% · district not reported

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below 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.