Summary:
The Columbia School District in Mississippi is home to two elementary schools: Columbia Primary School, serving grades PK–2 with 448 students, and Columbia Elementary School, serving grades 3–5 with 378 students. Located in a community where roughly 7 in 10 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the district still ranks in the top quarter of Mississippi districts (31st of 134) with a 4-star rating.
Both schools share one extraordinary strength: chronic absenteeism is remarkably low. Columbia Primary's rate is 10.9% and Columbia Elementary's is 9.6%, compared with 24.2% for the district and 23.9% for the state. Student-teacher ratios are similarly favorable at 12.9 and 13.1, respectively. Because Columbia Primary's PK–2 grade span falls below the state testing grades, it has no recent academic proficiency data. Columbia Elementary is therefore the sole source of test results, giving parents the complete picture of 3rd–5th grade performance.
At Columbia Elementary, 3rd-grade mathematics is the clear highlight at 65% proficient in 2025–2026, far above the state's 48.8%. However, math proficiency declines by 5th grade, where only 48.4% of students are proficient—below the state mark. Science is an emerging success story: 5th-grade proficiency jumped from 62.2% to 74.3% in one year, now exceeding the state. ELA proficiency held steady at roughly 54% across both years, with the school outperforming state averages in every tested grade in 2025–2026. The biggest opportunities are sustaining the science gains and shoring up upper-grade math.
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