Columbia High School

Columbia High School, a mid-tier four-year high school in Huntsville, Alabama, operated by Huntsville City, works with 916 students, covering grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 682 students per school, that is 34% above typical.

Columbia High School is one of 44 schools operated by Huntsville City, a district that educates 24,222 students overall.

On demographics, Columbia High School shows that 51% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 29% Hispanic, 13% White, 5% multiracial. That is meaningfully more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 24%.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 54 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 17.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 17.2:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 58% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Madison County (around 41%), the school's rate is north of typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Columbia High School falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 42.2%; this one comes in at 10.6%, -31.6 points off the demographic line.

Around the school, Madison County reports that the typical household earns roughly $86,499 per year, 46% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Columbia High School is one of 89 public schools in Madison County (combined enrollment of about 55,800 students).

Horizon Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Columbia High School ranks 8th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 36.9%.

The campus sits in a downtown setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Columbia High School has held roughly steady, going from 914 students in 2018 to 916 in 2025. Hispanic enrollment moved from 18% to 29% across the same window. Class-load math has widened: from 15.4:1 in 2018 to 17.0:1 in 2025.

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