Middle Schools in Tyrrell County Schools

The Tyrrell County Schools district—a small, rural district in eastern North Carolina where nearly all students come from low-income households—operates just one middle school, Columbia Middle, which enrolls about 90 students in grades 7–8 and carries a very high poverty rate, with 96.67% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch.

Since Columbia Middle is the only middle school in the district, its test scores represent the district’s middle-school results. Reading is the school’s clear strength: in 2025–26, 8th-grade reading proficiency hit 74.2%—18.1 points above the state average—while the combined reading average across grades was slightly above the state rate. By contrast, mathematics is the biggest challenge. Only 20% of 7th graders were proficient in math in 2025–26, which was 36.2 points below the state average, and 8th-grade math proficiency sat at 45.2%, still below the state’s 53.0%. Science also trailed the state average by about 7 points. These patterns suggest that reading instruction is comparatively effective, while math support and intervention remain urgent priorities.

Ranking history shows the school improving but still below the middle of the pack. Columbia Middle moved from the 27th percentile and a 1-star rating in 2024–25 to the 38th percentile and a 2-star rating in 2025–26, after being at the 36th percentile in 2023–24. With only 90 students, proficiency percentages can swing dramatically from year to year—for example, 8th-grade reading jumped from 37.1% to 74.2% between different cohorts. Chronic absenteeism (29.4%) is higher than the state average (24.2%), although below the district’s 34.2%, and roughly 3 in 10 students miss substantial instructional time. The school maintains a favorable 10.2:1 student–teacher ratio and spends about $13,061 per student, yet this staffing advantage has not translated into strong math outcomes. For parents, this means the school offers solid reading results and individual attention, but math proficiency—likely compounded by attendance and poverty challenges—is the key barrier to higher performance.