13 public K-12 schools in Cottage Grove from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
13 public schools ranked by quality score. NCES CCD 2024-25 data.
The highest-ranked of Cottage Grove's 13 public schools is Park High School, scoring 32/100, against a city average of 43/100. Computed live across every Cottage Grove campus reporting to NCES.
How the Cottage Grove Public-School Landscape Breaks Down
Cottage Grove, MN enrolls 7,632 students across 13 public schools reporting to the National Center for Education Statistics. The average student-teacher ratio across the city is 25:1, and the composite quality score, derived from student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted-program availability, and CRDC attendance data, averages 43/100. Schools must report at least five campuses in a city to appear in this listing, which is why very small towns may redirect to the broader county or state view.
The most-resourced campus in Cottage Grove on this index is Park High School, at 32/100 on the Resource Investment Index with 1,992 enrolled students. What the index does and doesn't measure; click any school below for its full component breakdown.
Cottage Grove spans 1 district, each filing its own NCES F-33 return, per-pupil spending can vary between neighbouring campuses. Sort the table below by enrollment, level, or district; click any school for its full profile.
Park High School accounts for 26.1% of all Cottage Grove public-school enrollment
That concentration means Cottage Grove-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade level: High. A dominant campus often anchors a city's program landscape and absorbs a disproportionate share of district capital and staffing decisions. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Cottage Grove school enrollment varies 285× across entities
Cottage Grove school enrollment ranges from 7 students (lowest) to 1,992 students (highest), a spread of 1,985 students. That ratio is extreme even by the standards of already-wide distributions, and reflects extreme heterogeneity inside a single city, small specialty programs sit alongside large comprehensive campuses, often serving very different family demographics inside walking distance. Per-school staffing, programme depth, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same city based on enrollment shape, a 200-student magnet runs a different operational model than a 2,000-student comprehensive high school.
Cottage Grove operates only 1 school district — among the most consolidated governance structures in the country
Most Cottage Grove school districts are a single unified district covering the whole city, a structural feature that simplifies inter-school comparison but concentrates policy authority. Consolidation produces narrower variance because resources pool across larger populations, but it can also mask intra-school district inequities — sub-school district differences within a single school district are not visible at this aggregation level. Consolidated systems typically rely more heavily on top-down funding formulas than on local revenue variability.
Cottage Grove student-teacher ratio is 25.0:1: well above typical (strongly associated with larger urban scale or staffing constraints that have widened the headcount gap)
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Values this far above the benchmark warrant a closer look at the underlying sub-units rather than treating the aggregate as representative.
Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Cottage Grove
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
The highest-ranked school in Cottage Grove is Park High School with a quality score of 32/100. There are 13 public schools in Cottage Grove with 7,632 total students.
How many schools are in Cottage Grove, MN? ▼
Cottage Grove has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 7,632 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 25:1.
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. Quality scores based on student-teacher ratio,
counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance. Schools must have 5+ in the city to be listed.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.
Read our methodology, which explains how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
