Columbia Middle School

As a middle-of-the-pack middle school in BERKELEY HTS, New Jersey, Columbia Middle School works with 523 students from grades 6 through 8, one of the schools within Berkeley Heights School District.

Within Berkeley Heights School District, which oversees 6 schools and 2,340 students, Columbia Middle School is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Columbia Middle School reports that the largest single group is White, at 56% of enrollment. Other groups include 20% Asian, 14% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 2% Black. That is meaningfully more White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 39%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Columbia Middle School lists 52 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 10.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 10.9:1 average. About 3% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Union County (around 52%), the school's rate is noticeably below typical.

With demographic context factored in, Columbia Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 64.7%, the actual is 66.7%, a residual of +2.0 points.

In the area at large, census data for Union County shows the typical household earns roughly $103,202 per year, roughly 39% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Columbia Middle School is one of 180 public schools in Union County (combined enrollment of about 99,046 students).

Mary Kay McMillin Early Childhood Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Columbia Middle School comes 4th of 6 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 69.6%.

The school occupies a bedroom-community site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 8%: 566 students in 2018 compared to 523 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 66% to 56% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 11.4:1 in 2018 to 10.0:1 today.

On allk12, the feed for Columbia Middle School typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.