Enrollment
379
Alabama · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Cottonwood, AL
Cottonwood High School
Federal NCES profile for Cottonwood High School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 43/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 010177000612
👥 S:T ratio 31
🌟 Gifted program 70
🎓 Counselors 24
📋 Attendance 47
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Cottonwood High School earns 43/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes near the Alabama median.
- 43
- Resource Index · Typical
- 17.2:1
- students per teacher
- 64.3%
- free-lunch eligible
- 379
- students enrolled
Cottonwood High School has class sizes near the Alabama median. Computed live against every Alabama school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Houston County · Alabama
NCES ID 010177000612 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
22.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
17.2:1
vs 17.7:1 Alabama avg
-3% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
64.3%
vs 58.8% Alabama avg
+9% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Cottonwood High School compares with Alabama and U.S. medians
What stands out at Cottonwood High School
Scale and staffing sit near the state mainstream
Cottonwood High School is neither an extreme outlier in enrollment nor in student-teacher ratio among Alabama schools. Its profile therefore turns on the other dimensions rather than on scale alone: economic need, counselor coverage, program access, attendance, and district finance. This middle placement is useful because it prevents the campus from being mislabeled as unusually large, small, crowded, or teacher-dense when the federal comparison does not support that claim.
Need and resources require a component-level read
Cottonwood High School falls within the wide middle of the Alabama distribution on both free-meal eligibility and the Resource Investment Index. Neither measure supplies an honest headline by itself. The useful distinctions are in the components: classroom staffing, counselor availability, attendance, gifted-program access, and district spending. Those fields can pull in opposite directions even when the overall percentile looks ordinary.
Student support operates inside a leaner district budget
Cottonwood High School's district reports $10,971 in per-pupil expenditure, at least 15% below the Alabama average of $13,538. That district-wide constraint gives the campus-level support fields added meaning: counselor loads, specialist staffing, and program access are being reported within a comparatively lean spending environment. F-33 does not publish this school's own budget, so the comparison describes district context rather than dollars assigned to this building.
Cottonwood High School is a higher-need, mid-sized combined-grade school in Cottonwood, Alabama, enrolling 379 students.
At 17.2:1, its student-teacher ratio sits close to the Alabama median, within a few percentage points of the 17.7:1 state norm, neither notably crowded nor notably small.
Economic need runs somewhat above the state's typical profile, with 64.3% of students eligible for free meals.
Enrollment of 379 puts it in the smaller third of Alabama schools by headcount.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the upper third of 1,365 scored Alabama schools.
Against 401 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks in the upper tier at #137.
Its student body is led by White (76%) and African American (15%) (diversity index 40/100).
Counselor availability sits well past the ASCA benchmark, roughly 379 students sharing each counselor, though short of the most stretched campuses.
Attendance runs somewhat below the norm, with 21.4% of students chronically absent per the 2021-22 civil-rights collection.
Its district draws 16.5% of revenue from federal sources, an above-typical federal share that tends to track a higher-need student population.
Discipline events run high: 154 in- and out-of-school suspensions were reported for 379 students in the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection.
The federal civil-rights collection also records 70 expulsions at this campus for 2021-22.
Among Cottonwood's public schools, it stands alongside Cottonwood Elementary School (502 students): Cottonwood High School is smaller than that campus by headcount and runs leaner classes (17.2:1 vs 17.3:1).
Houston County also operates Rehobeth High School (786 students) and Ashford Elementary School (668 students) alongside Cottonwood High School.
Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25
How Cottonwood High School compares
Cottonwood High School on the metrics families compare, against Alabama and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Alabama | Alabama avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 17.2:1 | ▼ 3% | 17.7:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 64.3% | ▲ 9% | 58.8% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 379 | top 68% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
17.2:1
Leaner classes than 29% of US schools, heavier class loads than most.
379
Bigger than 44% of US schools by enrollment, mid-sized for the country.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
64.3%
free-lunch eligible
- 9% above the Alabama average of 58.8%
Above the 40% Title I schoolwide threshold; federal funds support the whole school, not individual students.
Staffing depth
17.2:1
students per teacher
- 3% below state mean
Top 47% in Alabama - lower ratio than 53% of state schools
Between 16:1 and 20:1, squarely in the typical U.S. public-school staffing range.
Engagement
21.4%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
At or above 20%, the commonly used threshold for "high" chronic absenteeism, signaling significant barriers to regular attendance.
Funding equity
$10,971
per pupil, district-wide
- below Alabama avg of $13,538
Well below the U.S. average per-pupil spend, a notably leaner funding position that may affect programs, facilities, and staffing.
Support staff
Counselors1.0 FTE
Per 379 students, the combined health-and-guidance staffing load for this school.
Discipline context
154
in-school suspensions + 0 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 40.6 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 40.6 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection. Includes 70 expulsions.
Student demographics
White 75.5%
African American 15.0%
Hispanic or Latino 5.8%
Two or More 2.4%
Asian 1.3%
Largest group: White at 75.5% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 40.3/100
Simpson diversity index - at 40.3, Cottonwood High School is less mixed than the Alabama school average of 42.5.
Programs
Gifted & talented Yes
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Houston County, which includes Cottonwood High School.
$10,971
Per student
-19%
vs Alabama
Avg $13,538
-38%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 24.8%
State 58.7%
Federal 16.5%
Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2022-23 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.
How Cottonwood High School Compares to District-Mates
| School | Enrollment | Economic Profile | Student-Teacher Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rehobeth High School | Larger | Lower economic need | Higher S:T ratio |
| Ashford Elementary School | Larger | Similar economic need | Similar S:T ratio |
| Wicksburg Elementary School | Larger | Lower economic need | Higher S:T ratio |
| Rehobeth Elementary School | Larger | Lower economic need | Lower S:T ratio |
| Cottonwood Elementary School | Larger | Similar economic need | Similar S:T ratio |
Comparisons are relative to Cottonwood High School's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data.
Other Schools in This District
- Enrollment
- 786
- Students per teacher
- 21.2:1
- Resource Index
- 38/100
- Enrollment
- 668
- Students per teacher
- 17.6:1
- Resource Index
- 40/100
- Enrollment
- 636
- Students per teacher
- 19.9:1
- Resource Index
- 43/100
- Enrollment
- 590
- Students per teacher
- 9.4:1
- Resource Index
- 51/100
- Enrollment
- 502
- Students per teacher
- 17.3:1
- Resource Index
- 42/100
Similar other schools in Cottonwood
1 comparable other schools (grades Mixed) serving the same city.
Similar other schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Alabama, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~379 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~17.2:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Cottonwood High School's federal record.
- Compare Cottonwood High School against another school. Compare schools
- Houston County's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently asked questions about Cottonwood High School
How many students attend Cottonwood High School?
Cottonwood High School has 379 students enrolled. It is a public school in Cottonwood, AL.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Cottonwood High School?
The student-teacher ratio at Cottonwood High School is 17.2:1, which is 3% lower than the Alabama average of 17.7:1 and 10% higher than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Cottonwood High School?
64.3% of students at Cottonwood High School are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Alabama average of 58.8%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Cottonwood High School?
The largest demographic group at Cottonwood High School is White at 75.5% of enrollment, in Cottonwood, AL.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Cottonwood High School?
Cottonwood High School has a Resource Investment Index of 43/100 (typical reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, counselor availability, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
What other schools are in Houston County?
Besides Cottonwood High School, Houston County also operates Rehobeth High School (786 students), Ashford Elementary School (668 students), and Wicksburg Elementary School (636 students). See the Houston County district page for the complete list.
Related tools
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.