Summary:
ZIP code 47201 in Columbus, Indiana is home to three high schools serving grades 9–12: two large traditional comprehensive high schools in the Bartholomew Con School Corp — Columbus North High School (2,360 students) and Columbus East High School (1,452) — plus the very small Excel Center - Bartholomew County (49 students), which operates as its own district. Together they enroll 3,861 high-schoolers, with Columbus North alone making up about 61% of that total.
Columbus North is the clear academic standout in this group. It ranked 77th of 415 Indiana high schools in 2025-2026, at the 81st percentile with 4 stars, up from 101st of 432 in 2023-2024. It posts the highest reported proficiency of the three: SAT Reading/Writing 59.13%, SAT Math 34.22%, and Biology 38.69%. North's SAT scores beat both the district (52.56% and 29.33%) and the state (51.9% and 25.6%). It also has lower chronic absenteeism than East — 18.7% vs. 26.6% — a lower free/reduced-lunch rate (35% vs. 39.53%), and spends less per student ($12,244 vs. $13,435).
Columbus East's strongest metric is its graduation rate of 92.9% in 2024-2025, above the district's 91.9% and the state's 89.7%, and slightly above North's 91.2%. Yet its rank is 216th of 415 at the 48th percentile with 2 stars, and its test scores generally fall below district and state levels. Biology is a weak spot for both traditional schools — North 38.69% and East 28.28%, both below the district's 43.05%. Excel Center is a different context entirely: 49 students, a 67.35% free/reduced-lunch rate, an 8.1 student-teacher ratio, and an 8.3% graduation rate that matches its own district. No school-level test, rank, absenteeism, or spending data are reported for it, so its numbers aren't directly comparable to the two comprehensive schools.
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