The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Merwin Elementary
Merwin Elementary sits on Cypress Street in Covina, a roughly seven-square-mile residential city in the East San Gabriel Valley, about 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade within Covina-Valley Unified School District. Its enrollment is on the larger side for an elementary school serving these grades.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with most of the remaining enrollment split among Asian, Black, and white students in small shares. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this among the higher-need elementary schools in the area. Disability and English learner data were not available in the data provided, so a parent interested in those specific services would want to ask the school directly.
On California's CAASPP assessments, which test grades three through five, Merwin's results are mixed and sit below the midpoint among districts in Los Angeles County on the overall proficiency index. In English language arts, third graders are performing at roughly the lower half of what California considers proficient, and fifth graders come in at about the midpoint of the state's proficiency scale. Fourth-grade ELA results fall in a similar range. Math tells a more uneven story: third-grade math proficiency is the school's strongest result and sits comparatively well within these grades, but fourth- and fifth-grade math proficiency drops sharply, with fifth grade the lowest result across all tested subjects. On the California Science Test administered in fifth grade, roughly a quarter of students are meeting the standard. These are meaningful gaps, and a parent weighing the school's academic trajectory would reasonably want to ask the school what supports are in place as students move from the early grades into the upper elementary years where the data weakens.
Trend data is limited to the most recent year only, so there is no multi-year picture to determine whether performance has been improving, declining, or holding steady. Graduation rate does not apply here because the school ends at fifth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not available.
No specific program offerings were listed for Merwin itself. At the district level, Covina-Valley Unified operates K-12 Dual Language Immersion pathways in both Spanish and Mandarin, though those are housed at other elementary campuses, specifically Manzanita Elementary for Spanish and Mesa Elementary for Mandarin. Families interested in those pathways would need to be at those entry-point schools from the start, since the programs follow students through middle and into high school. Covina High School has also launched an Early College Pathway, publicly reported to allow students to begin earning transferable college credit as freshmen at no cost, alongside an existing dual enrollment arrangement with Mt. San Antonio College. Those are secondary-level opportunities, but families choosing an elementary school in the district may want to consider the full K-12 arc.
Covina itself is a largely residential city with a walkable historic downtown along Citrus Avenue, a Metrolink station offering commuter rail service toward Los Angeles Union Station, and a city library and parks within the urban core. Housing in the area is priced well above the national median and roughly in line with the California state benchmark, with rents rising sharply year over year. Affordability is a real constraint in this market, with rent-to-income ratios and estimated mortgage costs running high relative to national income norms. The city is actively adding housing, including new townhomes and a senior affordable project near downtown, with rezoning underway to allow more density near the transit corridor.
For a family evaluating Merwin, the school's setting in a stable residential neighborhood and its place in a district with meaningful secondary-level college pathways are real considerations. The academic proficiency data, particularly in upper-elementary math and science, suggests this is an area worth exploring further with the school before enrolling.
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