Enrollment
326
Elementary
DISTRICT 373 · STATE 313
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SALINA·NCES 201137000518
Cottonwood Elementary School
215 S Phillips, Salina, KS 67401 · (785) 309-4600 · Saline County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY33-TOWNTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL326 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 62% of Kansas public elementary schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Kansas public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
10.5:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.1:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
85%
278 students
DISTRICT 60% · STATE 51%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 23 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 56 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 50 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 57 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 51 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 43 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 46 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (56) is 22% larger than its 5th grade class (46).
Student demographics
65%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 60% · STATE 58% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
KAP 2024-25 . % Meeting + ExceedingEnglish Language Arts
45.4%
KS avg 44.5%
Math
40.4%
KS avg 38.8%
What this means: On the KAP, Kansas's statewide test, about 45 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 40 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Kansas schools, those numbers are about 45 and 39.
KAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45.4% | 40.4% |
| 2023-24 | 39.5% | 37.0% |
% Meeting + Exceeding, all students and all tested grades. Kansas set new KAP cut scores in spring 2025, so results from 2023-24 and earlier are not comparable with later years.
Source: KAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of KS schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
40.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
21.4%
based on KS schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+19.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 41% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 21% typical for Kansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 19 points, placing it in Kansas's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Cottonwood Elementary School
Cottonwood Elementary School's state test result (40.5% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottonwood Elementary School this school | 326 | 85.3% | 40.5% |
| Meadowlark Elementary Pittsburg | 403 | 82.1% | 33.6% |
| Faris Elementary Hutchinson | 279 | 89.6% | 21.9% |
| Eisenhower Elem Great Bend | 343 | 80.5% | 16.4% |
| Oakdale Elem Salina | 282 | 85.8% | 21.7% |
| McCandless Elementary Hutchinson | 346 | 93.6% | 19.9% |
Matched among Kansas elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Cottonwood Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Kansas | In Saline County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 40.5% | #360 of 625 | #4 of 10 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 40.4% | #331 of 625 | #4 of 10 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.4% | #376 of 625 | #4 of 10 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 326 | #327 of 714 | #8 of 10 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 10.5:1 | #23 of 539 | #1 of 10 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 64.9% | #92 of 540 | #1 of 10 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 85.3% | #82 of 658 | #2 of 10 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -35.1% | #18 of 377 | #1 of 9 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
326
-56 (-15%) vs 2020
0% since 1990-91, when it was 327
Student : Teacher
10.5:1
was 11.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 326 | 31 | 10.5:1 | 85% (278) |
| 2023-24 | 317 | 29.6 | 10.7:1 | 83% (263) |
| 2022-23 | 372 | 32.8 | 11.3:1 | 82% (305) |
| 2020-21 | 382 | 33 | 11.6:1 | 82% (313) |
| 2017-18 | 502 | 34.4 | 14.6:1 | 82% (412) |
| 2015-16 | 444 | 32 | 13.9:1 | 87% (385) |
| 2010-11 | 411 | 34 | 12.1:1 | 86% (355) |
| 2000-01 | 503 | 34 | 14.8:1 | 77% (387) |
| 1990-91 | 327 | 19 | 17.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cottonwood Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 35% (502 to 326); teachers down 10% (34.4 to 31).
About Cottonwood Elementary School
Cottonwood Elementary School is an elementary school in Salina, Kansas, reachable at (785) 309-4600. It covers pre-K through 5, with a total enrollment of 326 students.
Federal data list 13 schools in Salina, with 6,441 students enrolled.
Cottonwood Elementary School has no majority group; White students are the largest, at 47%. Beyond that, enrollment is 30% Hispanic, 19% multiracial, and 3% Black. In Saline County overall, about 82% of residents are White. Pick two students at random and there is a 65% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The school reports 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 10.5 students per teacher. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 13.2:1 average for elementary schools in Kansas. The free or reduced-price lunch share, often used to gauge student poverty, is 85%. It compares with 58% for public schools in Saline County.
The allk12 Grade for Cottonwood Elementary School is B. Compared with Kansas public elementary schools, the school scored higher than 62% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Schools in Kansas with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to post an average proficiency rate on state tests near 21.4%. Cottonwood Elementary School posts 40.5%, 19.2 points above that, which places it in the top 10% statewide on BeatsExpectations.
Within Saline County, the median household income is $65,422, about 29% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 9%. In all, Saline County has 17 public schools and roughly 7,580 students.
The next-closest public school is Oakdale Elem, about 1.1 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. On proficiency, Cottonwood Elementary School is ahead of the 31.4% nearby average, ranking 2nd of 8.
For locale, NCES codes Cottonwood Elementary School as Town: Remote.
Enrollment at Cottonwood Elementary School dropped 15% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 382 to 326 students. Federal data show the ratio falling from 11.6:1 to 10.5:1.
Threads on this page can be about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Saline County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
53,668
Census ACS
Median income
$65,422
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
29%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
17
7,580 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Salina
- Salina High SouthHigh · 1,046 students
- Salina High CentralHigh · 934 students
- Salina South MiddleMiddle · 782 students
- Lakewood Middle SchoolMiddle · 647 students
- Meadowlark Ridge ElemElementary · 431 students
- Stewart ElemElementary · 406 students
Other schools in Salina
- Salina High SouthHigh · 1,046 students
- Salina High CentralHigh · 934 students
- Salina South MiddleMiddle · 782 students
- Lakewood Middle SchoolMiddle · 647 students
- Meadowlark Ridge ElemElementary · 431 students
- Stewart ElemElementary · 406 students
Other Cottonwood Elementary schools
20 other US public schools in 12 states are named Cottonwood Elementary. Cottonwood Elementary School is the 19th largest of the 21.
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolLiberal, KS · 500 students
- Cottonwood ElementaryAndover, KS · 388 students
- Cottonwood ElemPaola, KS · 379 students
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolCLEVELAND, TX · 1,023 students
- Cottonwood ElementaryHesperia, CA · 868 students
Nearby schools
- Oakdale Elem1.1 mi · 282
- Salina Virtual Innovation Academy1.1 mi · 50
- Salina High Central1.2 mi · 934
- Sunset Elem1.3 mi · 380
- Lakewood Middle School1.6 mi · 647
- Heusner Elem1.7 mi · 392
Frequently asked questions
About Cottonwood Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School enrolls approximately 326 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Cottonwood Elementary School serve?
Cottonwood Elementary School serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Cottonwood Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Cottonwood Elementary School is approximately 10.5:1 (31 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School reports a student body of 47% White, 30% Hispanic, 3% Black, 19% Two or more.
Who oversees Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School is overseen by Salina in Saline County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.