Cottonwood Elementary

Cottonwood Elementary is an elementary campus of mid-sized scale in Palmdale, California, overseen by Westside Union Elementary, works with 652 students in grades K through 6. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so Cottonwood Elementary sits 40% above that benchmark.

Across the 12 schools in Westside Union Elementary (9,078 students total), Cottonwood Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, Cottonwood Elementary lists that 58% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. The remainder consists of 16% White, 11% Black, 9% multiracial, 5% Asian. By comparison, Los Angeles County as a whole is about 48% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

On the resource side, Staff filings list 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 27.2:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 22.3:1, putting Cottonwood Elementary higher than the state norm the norm. About 55% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is lower than Los Angeles County's rate of about 70%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Cottonwood Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 46.7%, the actual is 53.7%, a residual of +7.0 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Los Angeles County) reports that median household income runs about $90,112, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Los Angeles County runs 2244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,265,907 students), of which Cottonwood Elementary is one.

The closest other public school is Highland High, roughly 0.3 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Cottonwood Elementary ranks 1st on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 26.2%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count grew 38%: 471 students in 2018 compared to 652 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share shrank from 64% to 58%. Class-load math has loosened: from 26.2:1 in 2018 to 27.2:1 in 2025.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.