Canyon del Oro High School (CDO) is a comprehensive public high school in Oro Valley, Arizona, located 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Tucson at the base of Pusch Ridge in the western foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains.

CDO is primarily known for its academic program and the notable number of Major League Baseball players the school has produced in recent decades.

Additionally, CDO is consistently ranked among the top high schools in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek Magazine.

[8] CDO also has a long history of students excelling in the annual Arizona State Math Contest, including first-place finishes.

The campus was only a few buildings with a large grass courtyard accessed by Calle Concordia, which was then only a small dirt road.

CDO was formally declared a high school by the Arizona on July 1, 1965, serving grades 9–10, with only a few hundred students.

[26] The gymnasium at the school featured a four-sided score board suspended above the basketball court (Amphitheater by Peyton Reavis, 1981).

The CDO campus expanded with the gradual population increase north of Tucson, and the first graduating class was in the spring of 1968.

New construction occurred through the late 1990s, adding technology and laboratory science facilities for chemistry, physics, and biology.

Mo Udall represented much of southern Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time, and his brother Stewart Udall served as president of the Amphitheater School Board before later serving as Secretary of the Interior under U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The CDO girls' basketball team registered an undefeated 28–0 record in 1987, capturing the 5A State title (Arizona Interscholastic Association).

Canyon del Oro continues to register among the highest standardized test scores in Arizona, and a notable number of National Merit Scholars.

CDO is one of the few high schools consistently designated as "Excelling" (the highest academic distinction) by the Arizona Department of Education.

[23] As for faculty recognition, Librarian Beth Malapanes was selected Circle K/UA Athletics/KOLD Teacher of the Year for the Tucson area in 2007[citation needed].

Achievement rates on Advanced Placement exams, particularly in the laboratory sciences and mathematics, have historically far exceeded the national average.

Canyon del Oro offers twelve different CTE programs for the students to participate in.

CTE is leading this change, transforming expectations and making a difference for students, for secondary and postsecondary schools, for businesses and industry—for America.

CDO offers Russian and Mandarin Chinese classes, as well as many other courses through JTED programs and Pima Community College.

After winning back-to-back state championships in 1976 and 1977, the Canyon del Oro football program experienced difficulty repeating such success.

The following year CDO recorded a 7–3 regular season, falling to perennial powerhouse Mesa Mountain View in the opening round of the 5A state playoffs.

After dropping to 4A due to an enrollment decline, CDO's football program has experienced marked recent success, including several berths in the state playoffs.

In the 2009 Division 4A-I playoffs, the top-seeded Dorados went on to beat the McClintock Chargers (49–26), the Apollo Hawks (63–35), and the Cienega Bobcats (48–16) to get them into the state championship game.

The 2002 State Championship team merits special distinction, as it was ranked 12th, out of more than 1,000 other high schools, nationally by USA Today.

CDO boys' volleyball won the Arizona 5A State title in 1996 and fielded one of the school's most successful teams in 2005.

The CDO team captured the school's first boys' soccer state championship in 2009, with a 2–1 win over Scottsdale Chaparral.

[33][34][35] In 2011 the boys' cross country team won the Division II state title over runner-up Ironwood Ridge.

The CDO team is a perennial powerhouse in the region, defeating other academically reputable schools in the area nearly every year.

The CDO team placed second in robotics during the state competition of 2011, but students aim to surpass this in years to come.

The eastern boundary is defined by Catalina State Park and the Coronado National Forest/Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area.

[56] Elementary schools in the Canyon del Oro attendance area include Marion Donaldson, Winifred Harelson, Mesa Verde, and Copper Creek.