Cottonwood Creek Elementary

Cottonwood Creek Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school in Visalia, California, one of the schools within Visalia Unified. The school enrolls 627 students in grades K through 6. That puts it 35% above the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Visalia Unified comprises 41 schools with combined enrollment of 28,725 students; Cottonwood Creek Elementary is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Cottonwood Creek Elementary reports that the largest single group is Hispanic, at 70% of enrollment. The remainder consists of 16% White, 6% Asian, 6% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with Tulare County as a whole.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school reports having 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 23.3:1. The state averages around 22.3:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 60% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Tulare County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully below the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Cottonwood Creek Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 43.9%, the actual is 37.8%, a residual of -6.0 points.

Across the wider county, census data for Tulare County shows the typical household earns roughly $71,300 per year, about 17% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 15% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Cottonwood Creek Elementary is one of 196 public schools in Tulare County (combined enrollment of about 101,494 students).

Nearest neighbor: Crestwood Elementary, around 0.9 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Cottonwood Creek Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Cottonwood Creek Elementary at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 37.8%.

Cottonwood Creek Elementary operates from a city-core location.

Five-year trend. Cottonwood Creek Elementary's enrollment has decreased 13% since 2018, when it stood at 719 (now 627). Over the same period, the White share shrank from 27% to 16%. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 32.0:1 in 2018 to 23.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Cottonwood Creek Elementary typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.