Columbia Falls, MT schools
Columbia Falls’s public schools score close to Montana’s averages: 45% of students are proficient in reading against 46.2% statewide, and 92% of high schoolers graduate on time against 84.9%.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Columbia Falls’s School Grade: C+
The public schools Columbia Falls’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 56% of Montana’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they sit near the middle.
How the School Grade works
- Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Montana’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
- The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
- Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of Montana only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
- Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in Montana with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
- What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
Close to the state in reading
92% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years. #2 of 36 MT towns →
Two districts serve Columbia Falls
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
Colleges near Columbia Falls
There’s no college in Columbia Falls, but 1 college is within 30 miles. The closest is Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, 11.7 miles away.
Straight-line distance from the center of Columbia Falls. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus.
All 4 schools in Columbia Falls
School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES). Ratings are from neighbors on TownTapestry.