23 public K-12 schools in Columbia from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Columbia has more public-school enrollment than 89% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Columbia sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
12 of Columbia's 23 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.
The 17-point gap between Cradlerock Elementary and Guilford Elementary shows the range hidden by Columbia's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Columbia school enrollment ranges from 314 students (lowest) to 1,540 students (highest), a spread of 1,226 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Columbia's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cradlerock Elementary | 52 |
| 2. | Swansfield Elementary | 48 |
| 3. | Phelps Luck Elementary | 47 |
| 4. | Oakland Mills Middle | 47 |
| 5. | Atholton High | 46 |
| 6. | Long Reach High | 46 |
| 7. | Talbott Springs Elementary | 46 |
| 8. | Stevens Forest Elementary | 46 |
| 9. | Harpers Choice Middle | 45 |
| 10. | Bryant Woods Elementary | 45 |
| 11. | Waterloo Elementary | 44 |
| 12. | Atholton Elementary | 44 |
| 13. | Wilde Lake High | 43 |
| 14. | Hammond High | 43 |
| 15. | Clemens Crossing Elementary | 42 |
| 16. | Lake Elkhorn Middle | 41 |
| 17. | Longfellow Elementary | 40 |
| 18. | Oakland Mills High | 39 |
| 19. | Wilde Lake Middle | 39 |
| 20. | Thunder Hill Elementary | 39 |
| 21. | Jeffers Hill Elementary | 39 |
| 22. | Running Brook Elementary | 38 |
| 23. | Guilford Elementary | 35 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Cradlerock Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Columbia schools in this federal-data comparison at 52/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Columbia has 23 public schools with a total enrollment of 15,428 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.8:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Maryland →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
