The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Math. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Riverside Elementary School
Riverside Elementary sits on SW 2nd Street in the Little Havana area of Miami, a residential neighborhood close to downtown that is walkable, dense, and anchored by Latin American culture. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
The student body is almost entirely Hispanic, with very small shares of other racial and ethnic groups represented. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning a majority of families are economically constrained by federal thresholds. Data on English learner status and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided, which is a gap worth asking the school about directly, given the neighborhood's linguistic character and the fact that a school drawing heavily from an immigrant community often serves a large English learner population.
State assessment results for the most recent year are available for grades three through five. In math, proficiency rates range from about a third of fifth graders to a bit under half of third graders. In English Language Arts, results are lower and more concerning: third grade proficiency is quite low, with fourth and fifth grade somewhat higher but still well below where most parents would hope to see their child's school. The fifth grade science assessment shows roughly a quarter of students meeting proficiency. Across every tested subject and grade, results sit below what would be typical for schools statewide. These are the reported figures from Florida's FAST assessments, and a parent considering Riverside should ask the school about its specific instructional strategies, intervention supports, and how it tracks individual student growth over time, since proficiency snapshots do not capture everything about a child's trajectory. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible from this data alone to say whether results are improving, declining, or flat.
No program offerings were listed in the data provided, so specialized programs, dual-language instruction, arts integration, or other enrichment cannot be characterized here.
On the housing side, the zip code around the school carries home values well above the Florida state median, which itself has edged slightly downward year over year. Rents are also high, with the rent-to-income burden sitting at a level that housing economists would flag as stretched for a typical household. Buyers face the combination of elevated prices, high mortgage rates currently in place nationally, and a market where renters spend a substantial share of income on housing. The home value in this zip code is modestly down year over year, consistent with a slight softening in the local market.
At the district level, Miami-Dade is dealing with meaningful enrollment decline, publicly attributed in part to an immigration slowdown that has also reduced the county's overall population. The district proposed closing or consolidating nearly a dozen schools in 2026, with boundary changes and grade restructuring that could affect which school a given address is assigned to. Families moving into the area should confirm current boundary assignments before relying on any school placement. A voter-approved property tax increase, which funds teacher pay and campus security, remains in effect through 2027 and adds to the cost of homeownership in the county. The district is also navigating a state push toward a full school-day cell phone ban, with a statewide policy required by the end of 2026.
The school's neighborhood within Miami is publicly reported as walkable and well-connected to the broader city. Metromover and Metrorail access runs through downtown nearby, and the city's transit infrastructure makes car-free daily life feasible for many families in this part of Miami. Miami Worldcenter and continued high-rise construction north of downtown signal ongoing investment in the urban core, though county-level population dynamics are more complicated.
For a family weighing Riverside Elementary, the academic proficiency data warrants serious attention and direct conversation with the school. The community context is a dense, culturally specific Miami neighborhood with real transit access and high housing costs.
See more original research from School Decision →