Summary:
Cottage Grove, Minnesota has 12 listed schools, all part of South Washington County Schools, serving students from elementary through high school, including four high-school entries that mix a comprehensive campus with two small specialized programs and an adult-education program. The district ranks 144 of 458 in Minnesota — the 69th percentile with 3 stars — and the 12 schools together enroll 7,041 students, with 6,851 of them in the nine comprehensive K–12 campuses, split across 6 elementary, 2 middle, and 4 high-school entries.
Cottage Grove Elementary is the academic standout: the only school with a consistent 4-star rating, ranked 194 of 869 elementary schools (78th percentile), with 69.3% math and 58.3% reading proficiency — well above both district and state. Grey Cloud Elementary is the most consistently above-benchmark school, beating district and state in all three subjects and posting the lowest free/reduced lunch rate at 16.44%. Armstrong Elementary improved from 2 stars and 45th percentile to 3 stars and 61st percentile, with reading up about 12.9 points and science about 15.9 points. Oltman Middle School is the stronger of the two middle schools, ahead of Cottage Grove Middle School in both math and reading.
Science is the broadest weakness: both middle schools report 14.2% science proficiency, far below the district’s 27.2% and the state’s 25.5%. Park High School shows a split — a 90.0% graduation rate above district and state, but math at 27.7% and reading at 28.5%, well below both, with reading falling sharply from 43.64% the prior year. South Washington Alternative High School, Next Step Transition Program, and Great Rivers Adult Education are small, mission-specific programs whose data is limited or suppressed and should not be compared directly with comprehensive schools.
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