NCES CCD 2024-25 11 schools NE

Best-Resourced Schools in Columbus, NE

Compiled from official source data by .

11 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
11
Schools
4,870
Students
46.5/100
Avg Resource Index
16.2:1
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 54% 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

7 of Columbus's 11 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 composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Columbus's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 76th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 41st percentile. The 35-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 46%
School count
Top 35%
Resource Index average
76th percentile
Teacher staffing
41st percentile

Columbus High School accounts for 27.5% of all Columbus public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Columbus-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. 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 61× across entities

Columbus school enrollment ranges from 22 students (lowest) to 1,337 students (highest), a spread of 1,315 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. 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 student-teacher ratio is 16.2:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Variation between sub-units within Columbus is typically wider than the Columbus-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Lost Creek Elementary Sch 57
2. West Park Elementary 56
3. Columbus Middle School 54
4. Shell Creek Elementary School 51
5. Centennial Elementary School 51
6. Lakeview High School 48
7. Columbus High School 46
8. North Park Elementary 44
9. Emerson Elementary School 38
10. Lakeview Junior High School 36
11. Pathways Beyond/Early Steps to Success Building 30

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 Lost Creek Elementary Sch 56.8/100
  2. 2 Columbus High School 54.6/100
  3. 3 Columbus Middle School 53.8/100
  4. 4 West Park Elementary 52.6/100
  5. 5 Centennial Elementary School 52.4/100

What do families ask about schools in Columbus?

Which Columbus school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Lost Creek Elementary Sch has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Columbus schools in this federal-data comparison at 57/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Columbus, NE? ▼

Columbus has 11 public schools with a total enrollment of 4,870 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.2:1.

Other Cities in Nebraska

Omaha
155 schools
Lincoln
66 schools
Bellevue
29 schools
Grand Island
23 schools
Papillion
17 schools
Kearney
15 schools

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

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.