Southern Columbia Middle School

Tucked into the rolling hills of Columbia County, Southern Columbia Middle School serves the tight-knit communities along the Susquehanna River with consistently strong academics across the board. Families who value a smaller-school feel with genuinely solid test scores — particularly in math and science — will find a lot to like here, and the school's 79th percentile ranking puts it well ahead of most middle schools in Pennsylvania. Catawissa itself is quiet and rural, the kind of place where kids grow up knowing their teachers and neighbors, making it a natural fit for families looking to plant roots in a close community rather than a bustling suburb.