Columbia Middle School

Set in Columbia, Illinois, Columbia Middle School is a reasonably sized intermediate school, operated by Columbia CUSD 4. It enrolls 612 students across grades 5 through 8. Compared to the state average of about 462 students per school, that is 32% larger than typical.

Columbia CUSD 4 runs 4 schools in total, collectively educating 1,904 students. Columbia Middle School is one of those campuses.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Columbia Middle School reports that nearly all students (92%) are White. Beyond that, the school shows 4% Hispanic, 3% multiracial.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 37 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 16.4:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. An estimated 17% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Columbia Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 61.5%, the actual is 71.4%, a residual of +9.9 points.

Across the wider county, Monroe County reports that median household income runs about $102,880, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Monroe County's 14 public schools (combined enrollment of about 5,006 students), Columbia Middle School is one campus in the mix.

Columbia High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 7 other public schools cluster around Columbia Middle School. On composite proficiency, Columbia Middle School comes 3rd of 8 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 56.6%.

The school occupies a residential site.

Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count changed only slightly: 598 students in 2018 compared to 612 in 2025. Class-load math has pulled in: from 18.5:1 in 2018 to 16.4:1 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, members of the Columbia Middle School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.