Summary:
ZIP code 27925, which covers the Columbia area of North Carolina, contains just one middle school — Columbia Middle — a small campus within Tyrrell County Schools that currently serves grades 7 and 8 with an enrollment of about 90 students. Since there is no other middle school in the area, it is the sole option for families, and its performance is best judged against state averages and its own year-over-year trends.
Columbia Middle earned a 2-star rating and placed 481st out of 778 North Carolina middle schools for 2025–2026, a 38th-percentile finish. That marks an improvement from the prior year's 1-star rating and 27th-percentile ranking. The school's brightest spot is 8th grade reading, where 74.2% of students scored proficient — about 18 points above the state average, a striking result for a school where nearly 97% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Eighth grade science proficiency also surged from 34.3% to 61.3% in a single year. Challenges remain, however: 7th grade math proficiency sits at just 20%, far below the state's 56.2%, and 7th graders trail 8th graders in both math and reading.
Chronic absenteeism affects 29.4% of students — above the state rate of 24.2% but better than the district's 34.2%. The school does offer a favorable 10.2-to-1 student-teacher ratio, which likely supports the small-group instruction behind its gains. Per-pupil spending was reported at $13,061 in 2018–2019, although more recent data is unavailable. Note that the school recently shifted from a 6–8 to a 7–8 grade configuration, so cohort-to-cohort comparisons should be interpreted with caution. Overall, Columbia Middle shows promising momentum in reading and science, while math proficiency and absenteeism remain the key areas to watch.
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