Columbus Middle, Columbus WI - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Columbus Middle

Columbus Middle serves grades six through eight in the Columbus School District, a small public school system in the city of the same name, roughly a half-hour northeast of Madison. The school occupies an integrated place in the community rather than a remote campus, sitting near the downtown historic district of a small city with a traditional grid layout, a historic Amtrak station that serves as the primary stop for the Madison area, and a downtown core walkable on a modest scale.

The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population the next largest group, and small shares of students who identify as two or more races, Black, or Asian. About three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of economic need that is moderate for the region. The school’s enrollment skews slightly larger in eighth grade than in the earlier two grades, a pattern that could reflect natural cohort variation or enrollment movement into the district over time.

On the Wisconsin state assessments, the school’s performance is uneven across subjects and grade levels, and a family considering this school will want to look closely at the specific grade their child would enter. In math, proficiency rates across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades vary noticeably; the strongest results appear in seventh grade, while eighth-grade math trails behind. A similar pattern appears in English language arts, where sixth graders show solid proficiency but seventh and eighth graders land at meaningfully lower levels. Science and social studies are tested only in eighth grade, and those scores sit between the school’s math and ELA highs and lows. Taken together, the school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among districts in Columbia County, meaning it performs in the upper half of its local peer group, but the range within the building is wide enough that a parent should ask how the school addresses the soft spots, particularly in eighth-grade math and in seventh- and eighth-grade reading.

No data on chronic absenteeism or discipline was available. The district recently undertook a major capital construction project that represented a large investment relative to its size, a fact that suggests the physical plant has seen significant improvements or expansion in the recent past. Families moving into the district may want to confirm what that project delivered and whether it touched the middle school building specifically.

Housing in Columbus carries a value close to the state median, and slightly above it, but still within reach for many buyers compared to pricier Madison suburbs. The city’s economy historically rests on agriculture and grain shipping, and downtown retains a collection of nineteenth-century buildings and a preservation-minded identity. Community life centers on events like the Redbud Festival, and residents have access to a public library, a park system anchored by Fireman’s Park, and the convenience of an Amtrak connection to Madison and beyond. For a family, the picture is of a small, self-contained city with a traditional downtown, a mix of older and newer residential areas, and a school that performs reliably in its county context but shows enough grade-level variation to merit a conversation with the school about how it supports students in the subjects where they struggle most.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 674%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 775%

School 75% · District 75%

▲ 21 pts above state median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 12 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 672%

School 72% · District 72%

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Science

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 5 pts above state median

This schoolColumbus School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income24%Higher-income49%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income52%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income57%Higher-income80%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income29%Higher-income71%41 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income59%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income62%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income59%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income86%36 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income89%39 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income74%34 pp gap