Original Research by School Decision on Cottonwood High
Cottonwood High is a public high school serving grades nine through twelve in Salt Lake City, part of the Granite District. It sits in a residential area south of the city center, within a neighborhood with its own commercial corridor and easy access to the broader Wasatch Front.
The school enrolls a sizable student body, roughly typical for a comprehensive high school serving a city neighborhood. The student population is diverse: more than two in five students are white, about one in three are Hispanic, and the remaining students represent Asian, Black, multiracial, Native American, and Pacific Islander backgrounds in smaller shares. Roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that gives a sense of the economic range within the school community. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in this profile, so a family wanting to understand supports for those groups would need to follow up with the school directly.
The surrounding area of Salt Lake City is a dynamic urban environment shaped by major employers such as the University of Utah and the LDS Church, a downtown with walkable streets, TRAX light rail, libraries, parks, and civic anchors along the Jordan River. Housing costs in the zip code are well above national medians, and the city has seen modest home-price appreciation and new development in recent years. Rents have also risen, making the area relatively expensive. The broader Granite District covers a large portion of the Salt Lake Valley and includes a mix of suburban and urban communities.
What is not available in this account is any state assessment data or a reported graduation rate. The data reviewed for this school did not include test scores in English, math, or science, nor a four-year graduation rate. Without those measures, this profile cannot speak to academic outcomes at Cottonwood High. State testing results and graduation rates are common points of reference for high schools, and their absence here is notable. A parent or guardian may want to request that information from the school or the district to get a complete picture of student achievement and completion. No comparison to other schools or districts in Salt Lake County was possible for those metrics because the underlying values were missing.
The school itself offers the standard high school grade span. No information on programs such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education pathways, dual enrollment, or extracurriculars was included in the data, so families interested in those offerings should look to the school’s website or a course catalog. Likewise, discipline statistics, teacher staffing ratios, and attendance rates were not available.
Cottonwood High is a regular public high school in a well-established part of Salt Lake City, with a student body that reflects the area’s diversity and economic mix. The housing market around the school is competitive, and the city continues to grow. The central unknowns are academic performance and graduation outcomes, which are key questions for any family evaluating a high school.
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