The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Olivia Nieto Herrera Elementary
Olivia Nieto Herrera Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Long Beach, a large coastal California city with distinct neighborhoods, a strong port and aerospace economy, and notably diverse, immigrant-influenced communities. The school sits in an urban environment where family housing ranges from beachfront and canal districts to suburban single-family neighborhoods, and where the Long Beach Unified School District places students by address with a lottery for school choice.
The school's enrollment is small for an urban elementary, with roughly evenly distributed grade levels across the five tested grades. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic realities of the families the school serves. The student body is predominantly Latino, with meaningful representation of Asian and Black students and smaller populations of other backgrounds. Specific data on English learners and students with disabilities were not available.
On the 2024-25 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, the school's academic results show meaningful challenges. In English language arts, students across grades three through five averaged proficiency at the lower end of the range, with fifth grade performing noticeably better than third and fourth grades. In mathematics, proficiency rates are lower still, ranging from the mid-twenties to low forties across the same grades, with fourth grade marking the school's strongest math showing. In fifth grade science, measured by California's CAST assessment, proficiency is substantially lower. Across tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency position places it in the bottom quartile among the county's elementary schools. Only a single year of results is available, so trend direction cannot be assessed.
The broader context matters here. Long Beach is in a marked growth phase, particularly downtown, with major housing development and ongoing infrastructure investment around the port. However, the district itself is experiencing sustained enrollment decline from a peak reached roughly two decades ago, which has led the board to close schools. The most recent closure was Hudson Elementary, effective after the 2024-25 school year, with its boundary merging into Garfield Elementary's. This signals possible further consolidations as the district adjusts to changing student populations, a consideration for families thinking about school stability.
In November 2022, local voters approved Measure Q, a major school bond to repair and modernize aging campuses, upgrade safety, drinking water, technology, and career-education labs. Collection runs through a specified future year and raises local property taxes on assessed value. For families in the school's attendance boundary, this is a long-term facilities investment already underway.
The district is also implementing California's mandated ethnic studies graduation requirement, with new courses including blended ethnic studies and U.S. history options, plus dual-enrollment partnerships with Cal State Long Beach that earn both high school and college credit. This shapes the graduation pathway for students moving through middle and high school.
Olivia Nieto Herrera's results suggest students are entering the upper elementary grades with proficiency gaps in core academics, with particular weakness in mathematics and science. A parent considering this school would want to understand what reading intervention, math support, and science instruction the school provides, what the attendance and discipline environment looks like, and how the school works with families to close proficiency gaps. The school's location in Long Beach gives access to the city's transit network, library system, and diverse neighborhoods, though housing in and near the school's attendance area carries substantial cost relative to household income in the county.
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