NCES CCD 2024-25 13 schools MS

Best-Resourced Schools in Columbus, MS

Compiled from official source data by .

13 public K-12 schools in Columbus from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
13
Schools
6,315
Students
43.8/100
Avg Resource Index
12.4:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Columbus has more public-school enrollment than 65% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Columbus 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.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

8 of Columbus's 13 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.

Economic need crosses separate district systems

83.0% of enrollment in reporting Columbus schools is eligible for free lunch, while the city list spans 3 districts. That pairing makes a citywide average especially easy to misread: the need measure follows students, but staffing decisions, calendars, program rules, and federal allocations are administered through separate district structures. The 27-point gap between West Lowndes Elementary and Columbus High School shows how much reported resource capacity can vary inside the same municipal label. Compare schools within the same district first, then use the city view to see how those local systems differ.

City enrollment
Top 35%
School count
Top 28%
Resource Index average
64th percentile
Teacher staffing
85th percentile

New Hope Elementary School accounts for 18.9% of all Columbus public-school enrollment

That concentration means Columbus-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Columbus school enrollment varies 5.8× across entities

Columbus school enrollment ranges from 206 students (lowest) to 1,191 students (highest), a spread of 985 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

Columbus reports 83.0% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share is at least 75%, indicating a high concentration of measured economic need. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Columbus student-teacher ratio is 12.4:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

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.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. West Lowndes Elementary 56
2. Ms School for Math and Science 53
3. Fairview Elementary School 52
4. Cook Elementary School 50
5. West Lowndes High School 50
6. New Hope Elementary School 46
7. Sale Elementary School 45
8. Columbus Middle School 44
9. Franklin Academy 44
10. Stokes Beard Elementary School 41
11. New Hope High School 30
12. Columbus High School 29
13. New Hope Middle School 29

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Columbus

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.

  1. 1 Ms School for Math and Science 63.1/100
  2. 2 New Hope Middle School 55.8/100
  3. 3 New Hope Elementary School 54.7/100
  4. 4 New Hope High School 54.2/100
  5. 5 Franklin Academy 28.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Columbus?

Which Columbus school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

West Lowndes Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Columbus schools in this federal-data comparison at 56/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Columbus, MS? ▼

Columbus has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 6,315 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.4:1.

Other Cities in Mississippi

Jackson
58 schools
Gulfport
23 schools
Hattiesburg
18 schools
Meridian
18 schools
Olive Branch
14 schools
Biloxi
13 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Mississippi →

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.