Herndon-barstow Elementary, Fresno CA

Original Research by School Decision on Herndon-barstow Elementary

Herndon-Barstow Elementary is a public school in the Central Unified School District, sitting on the northwest edge of Fresno near the Grantland Avenue corridor. It serves kindergarten through sixth grade and draws a student body that is racially mixed, with Hispanic and Asian students together making up the large majority of enrollment. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in the middle of a common profile for Central Unified. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in the materials reviewed.

On state assessments, the school's overall proficiency sits in the top quartile relative to districts in Fresno County, which is a genuine strength given the breadth of that comparison set. Results vary by grade and subject, as they do at most elementary schools. Fifth grade shows the strongest performance in both English language arts and math, while third and fourth grade math and reading run lower. Science proficiency, measured at fifth grade on the California Science Test, lags behind both ELA and math at the same grade level; parents interested in this area may want to ask the school about how science instruction is structured and where additional support is offered. Trend data covers only a single year at this point, so it is not yet possible to say whether proficiency is climbing, flat, or declining.

The school is part of Central Unified, a district whose most publicly reported recent change involves its high schools: the long-running arrangement under which Central and Central East shared a campus split into two independently identified schools starting in the 2025-26 year. For families at Herndon-Barstow, this matters mainly as context for where their children will eventually land in secondary school, with attendance-area assignments now tied to the separated campuses. The district's bond and curriculum priorities were not confirmed in the research reviewed.

Fresno itself is a large Central Valley city, car-oriented and spread across a wide footprint. The neighborhood around Herndon and Barstow is well into the northwest quadrant of the city, where the built landscape is primarily low-density residential subdivisions rather than walkable mixed-use areas. Families here rely on cars for most daily needs. The city's civic assets are distributed: Woodward Park and its trail system, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo at Roeding Park, and the county library network with its regional branch near Woodward Park are within reasonable driving distance. Downtown Fresno, where significant public investment and new housing development have been underway, is a longer cross-city trip from this part of town.

Housing near the school sits meaningfully below the California statewide median value, which makes the northwest Fresno corridor more accessible to buyers than most of the state, though values are above the national midpoint. Rents in the relevant zip code run at a level that represents a substantial share of local income by standard affordability measures. Home values in this zip code were roughly flat or slightly down year over year at the time of the data.

Program information for Herndon-Barstow was not available in the materials reviewed, so it is not possible to describe enrichment offerings, intervention structures, or extracurricular options from the data on hand. Families weighing the school would benefit from asking directly about what programming exists beyond core instruction, particularly for students who need acceleration or additional academic support.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 43% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 33% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 31% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 33% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 43% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 41% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 45% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 48% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 27% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

This schoolCentral Unified, 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 3Lower-income40%Higher-income55%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income61%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income72%19 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income73%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income48%Higher-income52%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income48%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income54%Higher-income59%5 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income36%Higher-income57%21 pp gap