Enrollment
362
Elementary
DISTRICT 303 · STATE 380
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (YAKIMA)·NCES 530972001238
Cottonwood Elementary School
1041 S 96th Ave, Yakima, WA 98908 · (509) 965-2052 · Yakima County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY22-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL362 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 80% of Washington public elementary schools
- A-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.
- C-Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Washington public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
16.2:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.2:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
39%
142 students
DISTRICT 53% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 70 | 19% |
| Grade 1 | 57 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 65 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 64 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 49 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 57 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (70) is 23% larger than its 5th grade class (57).
Student demographics
55%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 56% · STATE 68% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Cottonwood Elementary School→West Valley Mid-Level Campus
Based on grade levels within West Valley School District (Yakima). Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
QUIET COMMUNITY
Be the first to start a discussion at Cottonwood Elementary School.
START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
65.5%
WA avg 58.4% . +4.1pp since 2014
Math
58.3%
WA avg 51.2% . -9.1pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 66 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 58 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are up about 4 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 9 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 65.5% | 58.3% |
| 2023-24 | 70.8% | 65.5% |
| 2022-23 | 68.5% | 60.4% |
| 2021-22 | 66.2% | 67.7% |
| 2018-19 | 72.0% | 69.6% |
| 2017-18 | 67.6% | 69.8% |
| 2016-17 | 62.7% | 70.8% |
| 2015-16 | 70.7% | 79.0% |
| 2014-15 | 61.4% | 67.4% |
% Met or Exceeded Standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Smarter Balanced + WCAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of WA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
65.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
53.9%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+11.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 65% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 54% typical for Washington 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 11 points, placing it in Washington'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 (65.1% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottonwood Elementary School this school | 362 | 39.2% | 65.1% |
| Sage Point Elementary School Moses Lake | 334 | 40.7% | 62.3% |
| Apple Valley Elementary Yakima | 447 | 42.3% | 65.3% |
| Hulan L Whitson Elem WHITE SALMON | 352 | 45.7% | 49.2% |
| Isom Elementary School LYNDEN | 413 | 46.5% | 54.9% |
| Peshastin Dryden Elementary Peshastin | 283 | 45.2% | N/A |
Matched among Washington 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 Washington | In Yakima County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 65.1% | #196 of 936 | #2 of 43 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.3% | #285 of 1,103 ▼ 108 | #5 of 45 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 65.5% | #218 of 1,102 ▼ 73 | #3 of 45 ▼ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest drop first | -5.0pp | #146 of 928 | #9 of 44 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 362 | #769 of 1,268 | #40 of 52 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.2:1 | #645 of 1,085 | #28 of 51 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 55.0% | #641 of 1,088 | #7 of 51 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 39.2% | #808 of 1,169 | #51 of 51 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -19.6% | #308 of 778 | #16 of 40 |
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
362
-57 (-14%) vs 2020
+1% since 2000-01, when it was 359
Student : Teacher
16.2:1
was 16.1:1
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 | 362 | 22.4 | 16.2:1 | 39% (142) |
| 2023-24 | 368 | 22.2 | 16.6:1 | 40% (148) |
| 2022-23 | 397 | 24.1 | 16.4:1 | 36% (143) |
| 2020-21 | 419 | 26 | 16.1:1 | 33% (137) |
| 2017-18 | 450 | 25.2 | 17.9:1 | 25% (112) |
| 2015-16 | 431 | 23 | 18.7:1 | 32% (138) |
| 2010-11 | 425 | 23 | 18.5:1 | 30% (129) |
| 2000-01 | 359 | 19 | 18.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cottonwood Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 20% (450 to 362); teachers down 11% (25.2 to 22.4).
About Cottonwood Elementary School
Cottonwood Elementary School sits in Yakima, Washington, and is classified as an elementary school. The school has 362 students in 2024-25 across kindergarten through 5.
Cottonwood Elementary School is among 15 schools run by West Valley School District (Yakima), which serves 5,480 students.
More than half of enrollment at Cottonwood Elementary School is White: 54%. Enrollment also includes 39% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 3% multiracial. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 55%.
Teacher count: 22.4 full-time equivalents. Student-to-teacher ratio: 16.2:1. The average for elementary schools in Washington, 17.3:1, is higher. Roughly 39% of students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. It compares with 77% for public schools in Yakima County.
Cottonwood Elementary School earns an A- on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 80% of Washington public elementary schools.
On BeatsExpectations, which compares test results with what a school's student poverty level would predict, Cottonwood Elementary School ranks in the top 10% in Washington. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 65.1%, against a prediction of 53.9%.
The county, Yakima County, is where the school is located. The median household earns about $70,656 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 19%, and about 12% of people live in poverty. Counting Cottonwood Elementary School, Yakima County has 119 public schools.
Measured in a straight line, WEST VALLEY VIRTUAL ACADEMY 9-12 is about 0.9 miles from Cottonwood Elementary School. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Of 4 schools in the immediate area with test results, Cottonwood Elementary School ranks 2nd on average proficiency.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Suburb: Mid-size: in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
The school shrank from 419 students in 2020-21 to 362 in 2024-25.
This page is set up for the Cottonwood Elementary School community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Yakima County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
257,152
Census ACS
Median income
$70,656
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
19%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
12%
Below federal line
Schools in county
119
52,145 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in West Valley School District (Yakima)
- West Valley High SchoolHigh · 1,494 students
- West Valley Mid-Level CampusMiddle · 1,167 students
- Summitview ElementaryElementary · 475 students
- Apple Valley ElementaryElementary · 447 students
- Wide Hollow ElementaryElementary · 433 students
- Ahtanum Valley ElementaryElementary · 381 students
Other schools in Yakima
- Davis High SchoolHigh · 2,359 students
- Eisenhower High SchoolHigh · 2,258 students
- West Valley High SchoolHigh · 1,494 students
- West Valley Mid-Level CampusMiddle · 1,167 students
- East Valley High SchoolHigh · 1,064 students
- Franklin Middle SchoolMiddle · 848 students
Other Cottonwood Elementary schools
20 other US public schools in 12 states are named Cottonwood Elementary. Cottonwood Elementary School is the 15th largest of the 21.
- Cottonwood ElementaryKennewick, WA · 474 students
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolSILVERDALE, WA · 362 students
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolCLEVELAND, TX · 1,023 students
- Cottonwood ElementaryHesperia, CA · 868 students
- COTTONWOOD ELEMENTARYCARLSBAD, NM · 684 students
Nearby schools
- WEST VALLEY VIRTUAL ACADEMY 9-120.9 mi · 167
- West Valley Innovation Center0.9 mi · 195
- WEST VALLEY VIRTUAL ACADEMY 7-80.9 mi · 21
- WEST VALLEY VIRTUAL ACADEMY K-60.9 mi · 28
- West Valley Virtual University0.9 mi · 2
- West Valley Open Doors0.9 mi · 14
Frequently asked questions
About Cottonwood Elementary SchoolHow large is Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School enrolls approximately 362 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does Cottonwood Elementary School serve?
Cottonwood Elementary School serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
How many teachers does Cottonwood Elementary School have?
Cottonwood Elementary School employs 22 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.2:1.
How diverse is Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School reports a student body of 54% White, 39% Hispanic, 1% Black, 3% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Who oversees Cottonwood Elementary School?
Cottonwood Elementary School is overseen by West Valley School District (Yakima) in Yakima County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.