Summary:
Columbus Municipal School District contains just one middle school: Columbus Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 and enrolls 597 students in Columbus, Mississippi. Because it is the only middle school in the district, the school is effectively the district at the middle level—district-wide middle school test scores and rankings are identical to the school's own numbers.
Columbus Middle School serves an exceptionally high-poverty student body: 99.66% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Chronic absenteeism is a real concern, with 31.2% of students chronically absent in 2023–24, notably above the district rate of 28.4% and the state average of 23.9%. The school ranks 227 out of 260 Mississippi middle schools (13th percentile, 1 star) for 2025–26, up from 244 out of 266 in 2024–25. The district itself ranks 122 out of 134 districts statewide.
Academically, proficiency remains below state averages in every subject and grade. For 2025–26, 7th grade math proficiency was 30.8% versus 57.7% statewide, and 8th grade science was the school's strongest subject at 37.1% versus 57.8% statewide. Encouragingly, the school posted year-over-year gains across the board: 8th grade science jumped 9.4 points, 8th grade math rose 8.9 points, and 7th grade ELA improved 7.6 points. The student-teacher ratio of 11.6 to 1 is relatively low, but outcomes are still heavily influenced by poverty and absenteeism. For parents, the key takeaway is that the school is improving and moving in the right direction, with particular momentum in math and science, while ELA achievement remains the biggest area needing attention.
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