Cottonwood
El Dorado Hills · CA · Cottonwood District · Public charter · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
San Juan High → Highlands High → Mesa Verde High → Sky Mountain Charter → Casa Roble Fundamental High → Encina High → John Adams Academy - El Dorado Hills → Buckeye Union Mandarin Immersion Charter →📋 At a glance
- 📚 7 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 2 physics · 4 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 73th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 13% by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Cottonwood compares for families
Stronger-than-average college-prep profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 73th percentile nationally with 7 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyCA trails the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (−4 points). Stronger local schools matter even more.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: San Juan High, Highlands High, Mesa Verde High and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
73th percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 13% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +13.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 3,563 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $11,066 per student in district revenue, the 3,140 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $34,747,240/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Juan High Citrus Heights |
Public | 12.1 | 559 | -10.6% |
| Highlands High North Highlands |
Public | 16.0 | 778 | +7.6% |
| Mesa Verde High Citrus Heights |
Public | 13.2 | 894 | +2.3% |
| Sky Mountain Charter Placerville |
Public · charter | 14.3 | 583 | +17.5% |
| Casa Roble Fundamental High Orangevale |
Public | 9.1 | 1,150 | +1.1% |
| Encina High Sacramento |
Public | 18.4 | 766 | +6.5% |
| John Adams Academy - El Dorado Hills El Dorado Hills |
Public · charter | 1.2 | 291 | +118.8% |
| Buckeye Union Mandarin Immersion Charter El Dorado Hills |
Public · charter | 2.5 | — | — |