Columbus Middle School

Columbus Middle School closed in June 2006.It was a small school housed in IS 44, which was founded in the mid-1980s as a alternative to the large junior high schools common in District 3 at the time. The program adopted the "Core Knowledge" curriculum of E.D. Hirsch, who wrote Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Hirsch, an educational reformer, believes all Americans must have a shared body of knowledge, including the foundations of Western Civilization. He offers a specific grade-by-grade list of what children should learn.

In 2002, the school expanded to accommodate a large number of students from a dysfunctional middle school in the district that was closed. Many of these students had serious behavior problems. In2004, only six percent of 8th graders passed the state English language arts exam.The building now houses MS 44 and The Computer School.(Vanessa Witenko, August 2007, Clara Hemphill, January 2004)