The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Walnut Elementary
Walnut Elementary sits on North Walnut Street in Baldwin Park, a densely populated, working-class San Gabriel Valley city in Los Angeles County. The surrounding neighborhood blends residential blocks with commercial corridors and industrial land along the San Gabriel River. The city's downtown core along Ramona Boulevard anchors civic life, with a Metrolink station connecting residents to Los Angeles and points east, a community center, and Morgan Park serving as the main green space. Growth here is largely infill-oriented, guided by a transit-focused downtown plan, and the city's overall population has edged slightly downward in recent years rather than expanding.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade in the Baldwin Park Unified School District. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, and the vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding community. Data on English learner rates and special education enrollment was not available in what was provided.
State testing results from the 2024-25 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress give a mixed picture. In third grade, math proficiency is near the midpoint, but it drops noticeably by fifth grade. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with third grade performing at a somewhat higher level than fourth grade, then recovering slightly in fifth. Fifth-grade science results on the California Science Test also land below the halfway mark. Taken together, across all tested subjects and grades, Walnut's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Los Angeles County. That comparison set covers a large and varied county, and the school's demographics matter as context, but parents who want to understand how children are progressing toward grade-level mastery may want to ask the school directly what it is doing at each grade level to move those numbers, particularly in upper-grade math.
Because only the most recent school year of data was provided, trend information is unavailable. There is no way to tell from the data whether results have been improving, holding steady, or declining.
The district context shapes Walnut's situation in ways a family should understand. Baldwin Park Unified has been closing elementary schools in response to falling enrollment, shutting several campuses in recent years and redirecting families to neighboring schools, including Walnut. That consolidation has likely shifted which students attend this campus. Separately, the district offers a Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion pathway that runs from elementary through high school and can lead to a biliteracy seal on a diploma. Whether Walnut participates in that pathway was not specified in the available data, and a parent interested in dual-language enrollment would want to confirm that directly with the district.
Facility investment is visible districtwide through a voter-approved bond program that has brought new air conditioning, safety upgrades, and a new high school gymnasium. The bond covers all campuses, though specific improvements at Walnut were not detailed in the data.
On the housing side, the zip code surrounding Walnut Elementary carries home values well above the national midpoint and modestly below the California statewide benchmark. Rents are also elevated, and the rent-to-income ratio suggests a meaningful cost burden for many households at local income levels. The monthly carrying cost of a typical home in the area, at current mortgage rates, runs substantially above the rental cost, a spread that shapes who can afford to buy here.
Graduation rate does not apply to Walnut Elementary, which serves only grades kindergarten through five. Chronic absenteeism data was not available in what was provided.
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