Best Public Schools in Columbia, IL

Columbia, Illinois, has four schools serving 1,904 students from prekindergarten through grade 12: Eagleview Elementary School, Parkview Elementary School, Columbia Middle School and Columbia High School. Eagleview serves prekindergarten–grade 1, Parkview grades 2–4, the middle school grades 5–8 and the high school grades 9–12. Eagleview has no test scores, and the schools’ different grade spans mean results are not all direct comparisons. The clearest overall strength is that every reported 2025–26 result is above its corresponding state result: the two schools with all-grades IAR scores lead the state by 21–37 points, while the high school’s advantages range from 8 to 18 points.

Columbia Middle School leads in IAR English language arts, with 86% proficient versus 78% at Parkview Elementary School, an 8-point difference. Parkview leads in math, with 76% proficient compared with the middle school’s 66%, a 10-point gap. Columbia High School is above the state in every reported subject-and-grade comparison, with its smallest advantage in 10th-grade science and largest in 9th-grade math. SchoolDigger’s statewide rankings also place the three ranked schools high in their respective pools: Columbia Middle was 65th of 1,126 (94th percentile), Parkview 166th of 1,737 (90th percentile) and Columbia High 88th of 620 (86th percentile). The ranking pools differ, so these places are not direct comparisons.

The two-year IAR picture is mixed, and the schools’ average advantage over the state narrowed. In ELA, Columbia Middle rose 5 points while Parkview fell 5; in math, the middle school rose 2 points while Parkview fell 8. Their average state advantage narrowed by 3 points in ELA and 4 points in math. Context measures offer additional perspective, not explanations for results: in 2024–25, student–teacher ratios ranged from 12.1 at Eagleview to 16.4 at Columbia Middle, while free/reduced lunch eligible shares ranged from 15% at Parkview to 17% at Columbia Middle. Columbia High had the group’s highest 2025–26 chronic absenteeism, 10%, but that was below the state’s 24%; its graduation rate was 95%, compared with 90% statewide.