Las Palmas Middle, Covina CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Las Palmas Middle

Las Palmas Middle sits on North Lark Ellen Avenue in Covina, a primarily residential city about 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the East San Gabriel Valley. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as part of Covina-Valley Unified and operates as a regular public school.

The student body is large for a middle school and draws heavily from the surrounding neighborhood. The vast majority of students identify as Hispanic, with smaller shares of Asian and white students and very small numbers of Black and multiracial students. A substantial share of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the higher-need schools by that measure. Data on English learner enrollment and special education rates were not available in the material we reviewed.

On the California CAASPP assessments administered in the most recent school year, English language arts proficiency ran in the mid-to-upper fifties across all three grade levels, with sixth graders performing highest among the three. Math proficiency was considerably lower, landing in the upper thirties across all grades with relatively little variation from one grade to the next. On the California Science Test administered to eighth graders, proficiency came in below the math figures, placing science as the area of greatest concern. Placed against districts in Los Angeles County using the county comparison set, the school's overall proficiency index sits just above the midpoint among the schools in that group. That positioning reflects a real gap in math and science in particular, and parents who want to understand how the school is working to close it may want to ask directly. Trend data across multiple years was not available; only a single year of results is on record, so there is no way from this data to say whether performance is improving or holding steady.

One program detail is worth naming clearly. Las Palmas is the middle school stop on the district's K-12 Spanish Dual Language Immersion pathway, which begins at Manzanita Elementary and continues through to Northview High School, where students graduate with the California Seal of Biliteracy. Publicly reported, this is a lasting, structured option for families who want bilingual academic development, not a supplemental elective but a full-grade-band pathway. The school also offers band and music, though detail on breadth of arts programming beyond those two offerings was limited. No additional course access, athletics, or enrichment data was available in the material provided.

The surrounding city of Covina has a walkable historic downtown along Citrus Avenue with independent shops, restaurants, and a Metrolink station that connects commuters to Los Angeles Union Station on the San Bernardino Line. Midcentury ranch-style homes, Mediterranean-influenced designs, and storybook bungalows make up most of the housing stock. Home values in the zip code are well above the California state median and dramatically above the national median, with rents that have risen sharply over recent months. The rent-to-income ratio in this area runs well above what is generally considered affordable, which shapes the economic reality for many families the school serves. Covina is actively adding housing density downtown and working through rezoning efforts to align multifamily zoning with its general plan, with both market-rate and affordable senior housing projects underway or approved.

At the district level, Covina-Valley Unified has publicly launched an Early College Pathway at Covina High School, allowing students who arrive from Las Palmas to begin earning transferable college credit as early as their freshman year, with a transfer certificate and up to roughly 42 college credits available at no cost. For families with an eye on the high school pathway, that is a meaningful piece of context for what comes after eighth grade. The district also operates a Mandarin Dual Immersion pathway at a separate middle school, Sierra Vista, with its own feeder elementary and high school.

Chronic absenteeism data and graduation rates are not applicable to a middle school and were not reported. Civil rights data was not available in the payload we reviewed.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 42% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 33% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 31% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 51% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 52% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 49% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 28% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 57% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

This schoolCovina-Valley 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 6Lower-income55%Higher-income60%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income53%Higher-income76%23 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income68%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income56%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income61%28 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income46%11 pp gap