The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Science. The lowest is 55% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Columbia Elementary School
Columbia Elementary School sits at 401 Mary Street in Columbia, the county seat of Marion County, Mississippi. The school serves grades three through five as part of the Columbia School District, and its enrollment is modest for that grade band. The student body is drawn from a small city on the east bank of the Pearl River, a place that historically thrived as a lumber town and now manufactures parachutes, clothing, furniture, and electrical equipment. Columbia describes itself as conveniently positioned relative to Hattiesburg, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast, and its downtown centers on the Marion County courthouse. The town has experienced population decline over recent decades and has weathered serious damage from both Hurricane Katrina and an EF3 tornado, so the community context is one of resilience in a setting that is not growing.
Every student at Columbia Elementary qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which tells a parent that the school operates in a community where economic need is pervasive and where federal support resources are fully engaged. The student population is roughly half White and a substantial portion Black or African American, with small Hispanic and multiracial groups rounding it out. Data on English learners and special education enrollment was not available, so those shares are unknown here.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent school year, the academic picture has a clear shape. Third-grade math proficiency is the strongest result at the school, with a solid majority of tested students reaching proficient or above. That number steps down in fourth grade and drops further in fifth grade, where fewer than half of tested students reached proficiency. English language arts is more consistent across the three grades, hovering around the middle range in each, with fifth grade slightly above fourth. Fifth-grade science is a relative bright spot, with a clear majority of tested students proficient or above. The participation rate was not reported for any of these assessments.
The pattern here is worth a parent's attention. The school seems to be doing its best work with younger students in math, where third-grade results stand out, but math proficiency erodes as students move toward middle school. ELA holds steadier but does not reach the same peak. Science in fifth grade is encouraging. A parent might want to look into how the school supports students between third and fifth grade in math, and what interventions or instructional changes are in place to address the downward slide.
Because the school serves only grades three through five, there is no graduation rate to report, and the grade band itself explains that absence. No career pathways, AP courses, or dual-credit offerings apply at this level, and none were listed in the data. Information on discipline, staffing, attendance, and course access was not provided, so those aspects of the school environment remain undescribed here.
Within the broader Columbia School District, publicly reported changes include an Intersession Program that offers enrichment and remediation during school breaks, which may benefit students at this age level who need additional academic support. The district has also seen its graduation rate improve over five years, though that measure reflects the high school rather than this elementary campus. A new Broadcast Journalism class at the high school level has earned statewide awards, but that is well downstream of what Columbia Elementary families would experience directly.
Housing in the Columbia area is quite affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the Mississippi statewide level and far below the national figure, and the price-to-income ratio suggests that homeownership is within reach for many local households compared with much of the country. Rent data was not available. For a family considering a move to the area, this is a market where housing costs are unlikely to be a barrier, though the broader economic picture is one of a community that has been losing population and has limited identified large employers beyond manufacturing and government.
Columbia Elementary is a school serving a high-need student population in a small, historically rooted Mississippi town. Its assessment results show real strength in early-grade math and in fifth-grade science, alongside a math decline across the upper elementary grades that a parent would be right to question. The school's full economic profile and its steady ELA results suggest a place doing grounded work with the students it has, in a community where affordability is not the challenge but growth and resources are tight. Families looking here should ask about the math trajectory from third to fifth grade and about how the district's Intersession Program supports students at this campus specifically.
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