Columbus (Christopher) High: No single number tells this school's story. Here's the honest picture.
Columbus (Christopher) posts 8% meeting the standard and 0.4% exceeding it, against 43% and 19.8% statewide. The gaps and the bright spots below are the real read.
| Scope | % Exceeded | % Met+ | Grad rate | College readiness | Absence | Suspension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 35 | 0% | 8% | 95.2% | 25.0% | 56.8% | 3.0% |
| CA average · High School | 54 | 20% | 43% | 92.5% | 43.0% | 23.1% | 3.3% |
Columbus (Christopher) High scores 35 of 100 on SchoolScope's Scope Score — the 94th percentile of California continuation high schools, not of the comprehensive field (CDE CAASPP 2025).
Measures test performance, attendance, and climate — not arts, community, or your kid. How we score →
Not Compared — Read the underlying numbers directly, and ask the school how it serves the specific population it's built for — that's a different conversation than the archetype labels are meant for.
Most rating sites would stop at “8% proficient” and call it done. Columbus (Christopher) deserves a closer read. The school sits in Downey, where four in five students qualify for free or reduced lunch — and reading the numbers without that context misreads the school.
One honest note: Columbus (Christopher)'s rank and percentile are measured against California continuation high schools — not against the state's comprehensive campuses. The underlying numbers below are measured the same way at every school; only the comparison group changes.
The story this school is actually telling
Of 100 students here: 8 are proficient by 11th grade → 95 graduate → 25 pass an AP exam. The gaps between those bars are the questions to ask.
The 7 things our score weighs
Ask what the school is working on next. Strong numbers tell you where a school is, not where it's going.
- Ask how the school follows up when a student starts missing days — chronic absence often starts outside the classroom, not inside it.
- Ask what share of students complete the full college-prep course sequence, and who gets steered into it.
- Ask whether the tour can step into a working classroom — watch how the teacher handles a student who's stuck.
- Ask to tour while school's in session, and notice how hallways and transitions feel — culture shows up between classes, not just in them.
- Ask how the school communicates with families when a child starts to struggle.
- Ask what a typical day looks like for a new student in the first few weeks.
How every group of students does here
At Columbus (Christopher) High in Downey, 12.2% of low-income students met or exceeded the ELA standard in 2025, compared to 51.7% district-wide and 38.2% statewide. Columbus (Christopher) High trails its district average for low-income students by 39.5 percentage points in ELA. Other subgroups: Low-Income students (0.9% Math proficient); Hispanic students (14.9% ELA proficient). The largest proficiency gap is 15.4 percentage points for english learner students. Data source: California Department of Education, CAASPP 2024-25. 108 students tested.
5 of 12 student groups here are too small to report — a privacy protection, not a gap.
Showing up, and staying in class
Where the path goes
The path below follows attendance boundaries — scores shown for each next step.
Estimated path based on proximity within the same district. Contact your school district for official feeder information.
The people teaching here
Pay is set by the district, not the school.
What gets spent here
$320 per student arrives as federal Title funding — a measure of concentrated need, not school quality.
The district's current expense of education per student, from CDE's annual SACS filing — the freshest district spending figure the state publishes.
District-level, from the district's own SACS general-ledger filing — school-by-school breakdowns aren't published by the state.
Source: NCES F-33 · Full district breakdown →
The neighborhood it serves
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024) · ZIP-level
At 368 students, this school is much smaller than the typical California high school (≈1450).
On the state's science test (CAST), 5% met or exceeded the standard — science is tested in grades 5 and 8 and once in high school, and it never enters the Scope Score.
Frequently asked questions
Is Columbus (Christopher) High a good high school?
What are Columbus (Christopher) High's CAASPP test scores?
How does Columbus (Christopher) High rank among California continuation high schools?
What is the attendance and school culture like at Columbus (Christopher) High?
How does Columbus (Christopher) High compare to other schools in Downey?
How does Columbus (Christopher) High serve low-income and underrepresented students?
Your other options
Nearby High Schools
3 within ~3 mi · avg 61
Private alternatives nearby
Private schools within ~10 miles. These schools do not participate in state testing and cannot be scored or ranked.
Every number on this page
Score factors, grade-level breakdowns, subgroup proficiency, and nearest schools.
| ELA | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 123 | 1% | 15% | 25% | 59% | 15% | −33 |
| Math | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT | MET+ | +/CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 | 123 | 0% | 1% | 7% | 92% | 1% | −23 |
We show the grade rows CDE publishes for this school. A missing grade or dash can mean the school does not serve that grade, no valid result was published, or the tested group was too small to report. It does not mean zero.
| Science (CAST) | Tested | EXC | MET | NEAR | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schoolwide | 131 | 0% | 5% | 69% | 26% |
CAST is tested in grades 5 and 8, then once in grade 10, 11, or 12. This row is the school's all-student aggregate. Not part of the Scope Score.
| Subgroup · ELA | Tested | MET+ | vs district | vs CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 108 | 12.2% | −40 | −26 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 115 | 14.9% | −40 | −24 |
| English Learners | 21 | 0.0% | −18 | −10 |
| School | Dist | Scope | EXC | MET+ | Grade gap | Cohort growth | Susp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus (Christopher) High ← | — | 35 | 0.4% | 8.1% | — | — | 3.0% |
| Santa Fe High | 2.1 mi | 63 | 26.6% | 59.1% | — | — | 2.9% |
| Warren (Earl) High | 1.7 mi | 61 | 25.4% | 54.5% | — | — | 4.1% |
| Norwalk High | 1.6 mi | 59 | 18.2% | 43.6% | — | — | 1.5% |
| California average | — | 54 | 19.8% | 43.2% | — | — | 3.3% |
| Year | Scope | Pctile | Rank | Exc | Met+ | Absent | Susp | Grade gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 35 | 30 | #1443 | 0.0% | 9.4% | 52.8% | 7.0% | — |
| 2022 | 36 | 29 | #1487 | 1.6% | 10.6% | 62.7% | 5.5% | — |
| 2023 | 37 | 29 | #1517 | 1.8% | 11.7% | 61.0% | 4.9% | — |
| 2024 | 36 | 28 | #1538 | 1.6% | 6.7% | 55.6% | 3.8% | — |
| 2025 | 35 | 94 | #20 | 0.4% | 8.1% | 56.8% | 3.0% | — |
- — This school's rank and percentile are computed against California continuation high schools, not California's comprehensive campuses — see the Enrollment Axiom at /methodology#peer-class.
- — Low-income students here trail the state average for their group by 26 points in ELA — worth asking how the school is closing that gap.
| Group | 2019 | 2025 | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 59.6% | 61.3% | +1.7pp |
| Male | 54.0% | 59.1% | +5.1pp |
| Black/African American | 38.9% | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino | 56.6% | 60.2% | +3.6pp |
| Students with Disabilities | 70.4% | 60.2% | -10.2pp |
| English Learners | 59.3% | 64.3% | +5.0pp |
| Homeless | 50.0% | 60.0% | +10.0pp |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 57.6% | 59.8% | +2.2pp |
| All Students | 55.9% | 59.9% | +4.0pp |
| Measure | This school |
|---|---|
| AP offered | not offered |
| AP course count | not reported |
| AP enrollment | not reported |
| IB participation | not offered |
| Dual enrollment | not offered |
| Algebra I in grade 8 | not reported |
| Calculus sections | 0 |
| Physics sections | 6 |
| Chemistry sections | 0 |
| Total enrollment (CRDC) | 311 |
Shown, never scored — no entry to any composite. NULL/reserve codes render "not reported," never a fabricated zero. The equity block above this table (§4) is the per-subgroup view of this same collection.
| Destination | Completers | % (derived) |
|---|---|---|
| University of California | 0 | 0.0% |
| California State University | 0 | 0.0% |
| California community college | 18 | 8.6% |
| In-state private | 3 | 1.4% |
| Out-of-state, 4-year | 3 | 1.4% |
| Out-of-state, 2-year | 1 | 0.5% |
| Not enrolled | 185 | 88.1% |
210 completers, class of 2023 · state-reported college-going rate 12% · % column is computed by SchoolScope (count ÷ completers), not a CDE-native rate · a missing cell is CDE suppression, never a fabricated zero · source: CDE 12-mo CGR, 2023 cohort (the newest published), National Student Clearinghouse match — a different, older vintage than the fall 2025 UC admissions rows in tables 06-07 above.
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SchoolScope scores and verdicts are our interpretation of public California Department of Education data — independent analysis, not an official rating. How we analyze · Request a correction