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Best kept secret at Columbia Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
701
Elementary
DISTRICT 722 · STATE 480
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MADISON CITY·NCES 010000802097
Columbia Elementary School
667 Balch Road, Madison, AL 35758 · (256) 430-2751 · Madison County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL701 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 68% of Alabama public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alabama public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
50 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.4:1 · STATE 17.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
25%
176 students
DISTRICT 26% · STATE 58%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 84 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 111 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 123 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 136 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 135 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 112 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (84) is 25% smaller than its 5th grade class (112).
Student demographics
65%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 65% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ACAP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
79.6%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
67.2%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 80 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 67 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
Source: ACAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
70.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
65.7%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+5.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 71% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 66% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alabama's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Columbia Elementary School
Columbia Elementary School's state test result (70.7% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia Elementary School this school | 701 | 25.1% | 70.7% |
| Madison Elementary School Madison | 603 | 27.4% | 72.0% |
| Mill Creek Elementary School Madison | 965 | 24.6% | 72.2% |
| Heritage Elementary School Madison | 869 | 25.5% | 81.6% |
| Brocks Gap Intermediate School Hoover | 521 | 20.0% | 77.4% |
| Trace Crossings Elementary School Hoover | 769 | 37.5% | 70.2% |
Matched among Alabama elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Columbia Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Madison County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 70.7% | #84 of 626 | #13 of 48 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 67.2% | #67 of 626 | #7 of 48 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 79.6% | #107 of 626 | #14 of 48 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 701 | #103 of 709 | #11 of 50 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.2:1 | #49 of 655 | #2 of 49 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 64.7% | #89 of 658 | #16 of 49 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 25.1% | #661 of 696 | #45 of 49 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -19.0% | #104 of 364 | #9 of 29 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
701
-143 (-17%) vs 2020
-4% since 2010-11, when it was 731
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
was 16.9:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 701 | 49.5 | 14.2:1 | 25% (176) |
| 2023-24 | 776 | 48 | 16.2:1 | 28% (219) |
| 2022-23 | 784 | 46.5 | 16.9:1 | 23% (183) |
| 2020-21 | 844 | 50 | 16.9:1 | 13% (110) |
| 2017-18 | 865 | 47.8 | 18.1:1 | 20% (173) |
| 2015-16 | 801 | 43 | 18.6:1 | 20% (158) |
| 2010-11 | 731 | 50 | 14.6:1 | 18% (133) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Columbia Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 19% (865 to 701); teachers up 4% (47.8 to 49.5).
About Columbia Elementary School
Columbia Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school that serves part of Madison, Alabama. It reports enrollment of 701 students in kindergarten through 5. On average, elementary schools in Alabama enroll around 480, and this school is 46% above that mark.
Across its 13 schools, Madison City enrolls 13,046 students. Columbia Elementary School is one of those schools.
Federal enrollment data show Columbia Elementary School is 55% White. The remaining shares are 16% Black, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, and 9% multiracial. Madison County as a whole is about 63% White, so the school's share is lower. A diversity index of 65% means there is a 65% chance two randomly chosen students at Columbia Elementary School are from different groups.
Columbia Elementary School reported 49.5 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25, a ratio of 14.2:1. Elementary schools in Alabama average 17.0:1, 2.8 more students per teacher than here. There are 176 students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 25% of enrollment. Public schools in Madison County average 41%.
Columbia Elementary School earns a B+ on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 68% of Alabama public elementary schools.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Columbia Elementary School is +5.0 points: 70.7% actual, 65.7% predicted.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Madison County show that median household income comes to about $86,499, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 46% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. Madison County counts 89 public schools with about 55,800 students.
A public school about 0.7 miles away, Liberty Middle School, is the closest to Columbia Elementary School. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools with test data average 67.6% proficiency; Columbia Elementary School posts 70.7%.
Federal data place Columbia Elementary School in the Suburb: Large locale, which means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment fell by 17% across 4 years, from 844 in 2020-21 to 701 in 2024-25. The student-to-teacher ratio went down from 16.9:1 to 14.2:1.
This page is set up for the Columbia Elementary School community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Madison County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
405,718
Census ACS
Median income
$86,499
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
89
55,800 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Madison City
- James Clemens High SchoolHigh · 2,159 students
- Bob Jones High SchoolHigh · 2,048 students
- Liberty Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,103 students
- MidTown Elementary SchoolElementary · 1,097 students
- Discovery Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,054 students
- Mill Creek Elementary SchoolElementary · 965 students
Other schools in Madison
- James Clemens High SchoolHigh · 2,159 students
- Bob Jones High SchoolHigh · 2,048 students
- Liberty Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,103 students
- MidTown Elementary SchoolElementary · 1,097 students
- Discovery Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,054 students
- Mill Creek Elementary SchoolElementary · 965 students
Other Columbia Elementary schools
24 other US public schools in 13 states are named Columbia Elementary. Columbia Elementary School is the 3rd largest of the 25.
- Columbia ElementaryEl Monte, CA · 706 students
- Columbia ElementaryPerris, CA · 704 students
- Columbia ElementaryLancaster, CA · 620 students
- Columbia ElementaryBakersfield, CA · 601 students
- Columbia ElementaryMukilteo, WA · 596 students
Nearby schools
- Liberty Middle School0.7 mi · 1,103
- Madison City School PreK Center1.3 mi · 252
- Heritage Elementary School1.3 mi · 869
- Discovery Middle School1.4 mi · 1,054
- Bob Jones High School1.7 mi · 2,048
- MidTown Elementary School1.9 mi · 1,097
Frequently asked questions
About Columbia Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Columbia Elementary School?
Columbia Elementary School enrolls approximately 701 students in grades KG-05.
Is Columbia Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Columbia Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Columbia Elementary School have?
Columbia Elementary School employs 50 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.2:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Columbia Elementary School?
At Columbia Elementary School, the student body is approximately 55% White, 10% Hispanic, 16% Black, 10% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Columbia Elementary School?
Columbia Elementary School is overseen by Madison City in Madison County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.