The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 62%.
Original Research by School Decision on Cottonwood School
Cottonwood School serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a rural setting outside Havre, Montana. It operates as a single-school elementary district called Cottonwood Elem, and the school itself sits at a rural address on Wildhorse Road. With a small enrollment, the school offers a close-knit educational environment where most students travel from the surrounding countryside.
The student body is predominantly white, with a notable share of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a small number of Black students. The school’s grade-level distribution shows a tapering enrollment across the elementary and middle school years, with the largest single group in fifth grade. Data on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, nor were figures for students with disabilities or English learners. A parent interested in those support structures would need to inquire directly with the school.
On state assessments, the picture is partial. The small student counts mean that the state suppresses proficiency results for groups with very few test-takers, to protect student privacy, and that is the case here. In math, the tested group of students was small enough that the state did not release a proficiency rate. In science, the group was even smaller, and those results were also suppressed. The one subject for which a proficiency rate is available is English language arts: based on the students tested, a majority met or exceeded the state standard. That performance places the school’s overall proficiency index in the top quartile relative to other districts in Hill County, a strong showing. Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report.
The school is not a charter and does not appear to receive Title I funding, though its Title I status was not explicitly confirmed in the available data. The district is a very small, rural operation, and no recent major changes or strategic initiatives were found in public sources. A parent considering Cottonwood School would likely want to ask about class configuration, given the small enrollment: some grades have only one or two students, and others have none.
Havre itself is a regional hub for the Hi-Line area of Montana. Founded as a railroad service center for the Great Northern Railway, the town retains a grid layout with its main commercial street running parallel to the BNSF tracks. The largest employers are Northern Montana Hospital, Montana State University–Northern, and the railway. Havre provides civic amenities a rural school family might value: a public library, a county park, a museum, and an Amtrak stop. The population is declining slightly, and no major new housing development was identified in search results. Housing values in the school’s ZIP code are well below the state benchmark for Montana, making the area more affordable relative to the broader state market.
For a family seeking a small, rural school where their child will be in a very small cohort and where academic performance in the one tested subject that could be reported was strong, Cottonwood School fits that profile. The lack of data on several key measures, particularly math and science proficiency and student support services, means a parent should plan to spend time talking with school staff directly. The school’s grade band means families will need to plan for high school placement once their child finishes eighth grade, as the school does not offer high school grades.
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