Corvallis Middle, Norwalk CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Corvallis Middle

Corvallis Middle sits on Leffingwell Road in Norwalk, a dense residential suburb about seventeen miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school within Norwalk-La Mirada Unified, drawing a student body that is predominantly Hispanic and where a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is mid-sized for a middle school.

On the most recent California state assessments, English language arts proficiency runs roughly in the mid-forties across all three grade levels, placing the school's combined proficiency index below the midpoint among districts in Los Angeles County. Math proficiency is lower, sitting in the upper twenties at each grade level. Eighth-grade science results are lower still. These are not catastrophic numbers, but they are soft, and a parent whose student is college-bound or who is hoping for acceleration should ask the school directly about what academic supports and pathways are available. The comparison trend data covers only a single year, so there is no clean multi-year arc to assess whether scores have been moving up or down.

Data on chronic absenteeism and English learner rates were not reported in what we have, and IEP enrollment was also missing. Those are real gaps. A family with a student who has an IEP or is an English learner, or who simply wants to understand whether attendance has been a schoolwide issue, will want to ask the district for those figures directly.

The parent district, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified, has been facing a sustained enrollment decline. Because California school funding follows attendance, a shrinking district faces ongoing budget and staffing pressure that can ripple into program decisions. That is a structural condition worth understanding when weighing a long-term commitment to the area. On the curriculum side, the district publicly reports having expanded a Spanish dual-language immersion pathway, now running from elementary through middle school at specific campuses; families interested in a bilingual-biliterate track should check whether it connects to Corvallis. No program offerings specific to Corvallis were available in the data we reviewed, so we left that rather than guess.

Norwalk itself is a car-oriented suburb, historically shaped by freeways and mid-century residential development. The housing market here runs well above the national median, though it sits just below the California state benchmark, and rents have been climbing. The price-to-income ratio is notably stretched relative to national norms, making this a market where buying or renting carries a real financial weight. For context, the monthly carrying cost of ownership significantly exceeds a typical mortgage in a less constrained market, and renting absorbs a large share of household income at local wage levels.

Norwalk is also actively rezoning for density. The Heart of Norwalk Specific Plan, adopted in December 2025, would allow significantly higher-density housing along major commercial corridors over a multi-decade buildout. The Norwalk Transit Village plan, adopted earlier in 2025, targets a large former state property on Bloomfield Avenue for housing and commercial redevelopment. Several other projects are either approved or under construction. Families buying into the area now are buying into a community that will likely look denser and more urban over the coming decade, which may matter to some households and not others.

The civic core of Norwalk is anchored by the Norwalk Civic Center, Norwalk Town Square, Cerritos College in the southern part of the city, and transit connections including the Metro C Line and a Metrolink commuter rail station. The two stations are separated enough that getting between them requires a shuttle bus rather than walking. The overall texture is suburban with gradual transit investment at the edges.

Graduation rate data does not apply to Corvallis Middle because it is a grades six through eight school; that metric belongs to the high schools students feed into after eighth grade.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 33% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 33% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 828%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 3 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 46%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 749%

School 49% · District 55% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 50% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 30% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 54% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolNorwalk-La Mirada 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-income43%Higher-income54%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income47%Higher-income55%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income41%Higher-income59%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income24%Higher-income29%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income25%Higher-income35%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income36%9 pp gap