Jessie Nelson Academy

Jessie Nelson Academy, a reasonably sized 6-8 campus in Signal Hill, California, overseen by Long Beach Unified, educates 832 students, covering grades 6 through 8. That puts it 26% bigger than the typical public school in California, which averages around 659 students.

Jessie Nelson Academy is one of 82 schools operated by Long Beach Unified, a district that hosts 62,255 students overall.

On demographics, Jessie Nelson Academy records that Hispanic students make up the majority at 60%; the rest breaks down as 22% Asian, 13% Black, 3% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 48% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 26.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 20.7:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. An estimated 81% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is noticeably above Los Angeles County's rate of about 70%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Jessie Nelson Academy performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 31.5%, the actual is 26.2%, a residual of -5.3 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Los Angeles County indicate the typical household earns roughly $90,112 per year, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Los Angeles County's 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), Jessie Nelson Academy is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Alvarado Elementary, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Jessie Nelson Academy. On composite proficiency, Jessie Nelson Academy comes 5th of 8 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 34.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a suburban area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Jessie Nelson Academy has climbed 4%, going from 799 students in 2018 to 832 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Jessie Nelson Academy community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.