Northland Preparatory and Fitness Academy

Northland Preparatory and Fitness Academy is a K–8 charter school of 133 students at 1875 Morse Rd in Columbus's Northland corridor, where it stands out dramatically from the ten other elementary schools within about 1.3 miles. On 2025–2026 data, it ranks #2 of 1,560 Ohio elementary schools — the 100th percentile, with 5 SchoolDigger stars — while every nearby school, including Northtowne Elementary School, Parkmoor Elementary School, Maize Road Elementary School and Valley Forge Elementary School, ranks between the 3rd and 30th percentile.

That gap shows up in results. NPFA leads both the state and every neighbor in every reported grade and subject: 100% proficiency in 3rd- and 4th-grade math and ELA, 92.3% in 6th-grade math and ELA, and 70.6% in 8th-grade math — against a best-neighbor figure of 25% in that grade. It does this with the smallest student-teacher ratio in the area (10.2, roughly half of most neighbors) and, in the only year reported (2018–19), one of the lowest per-student spending figures in the group ($7,554). This is a recent, dramatic turnaround: NPFA sat in the bottom third of Ohio elementary schools for most of the last decade (6th percentile in 2016–17) before climbing to 100th percentile in 2025–2026. Nearby charters do not share these results — Imagine Columbus Primary Academy ranks in the 3rd percentile and Columbus Humanities Arts and Technology Academy in the 12th.

Two things temper the picture. First, chronic absenteeism is 69.5% and rising — up from 44.9% in 2021–22, above the Columbus City Schools district average of 53.8% and well above every neighbor — the biggest question to investigate. Second, with about 133 students across nine grade levels, each grade has only roughly 13–17 children, so a single student can swing a percentage sharply and year-to-year results are volatile. Fifth-grade results are also missing for the two most recent years. Subgroup data is encouraging: the school's low-income students have climbed from the 38th percentile (2022–23) to the 73rd–89th range in the two most recent reported years.