Summary:
In zip code 99323, which serves the Burbank, Washington area, there is one public middle school, Columbia Middle School, serving grades 6-8 within the Columbia (Walla Walla) School District.
Columbia Middle School faces significant academic challenges, with student proficiency rates in English, math, and science roughly 20 to 25 percentage points below the Washington state averages. Performance varies widely by grade, with 7th graders performing notably stronger than their 6th and 8th-grade peers, suggesting potential inconsistencies in curriculum or instruction across grade levels. The school serves a community with high economic need, as 59% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, but it is supported by per-student spending that is above the state average.
Despite its low statewide ranking, the school has shown a recent positive trend, improving from the 6th to the 15th percentile over the past three years. Its struggles are reflective of broader challenges within the Columbia (Walla Walla) School District, which itself ranks in the bottom 12% of districts. For parents, this indicates the school is a small, high-need community that is receiving substantial resources and has begun to show measurable, though modest, improvement after a period of very low performance.
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