Central Elem School, Riverside IL

Original Research by School Decision on Central Elem School

Central Elem School is a small public elementary school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in Riverside, a historic planned suburb about nine miles west of downtown Chicago. The school enrolls a diverse student body in a community that values walkability, design heritage, and residential calm over growth.

The school's academic performance reflects solid proficiency in the grades tested. In math, Central Elem shows strength in third and fifth grade, with strong majorities of students meeting or exceeding state standards. Fourth-grade math performance is modestly lower, though still above the midpoint. English language arts improves as students move up the grades; third grade lags while fifth grade shows notably stronger attainment. Science proficiency in fifth grade sits in the middle range. Overall, across tested subjects and grades, Central Elem ranks in the top quartile relative to districts across Cook County. The school participated in all or nearly all state assessments, indicating strong attendance and engagement on test days.

A few things to note. The school serves only grades through fifth, so state testing results do not exist for middle school grades. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, limiting visibility into economic need within the school population. Special education and English learner enrollment counts are also not public in these records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those populations and the supports they receive.

The enrollment is small for an elementary school, just over a third of the way through the grade band from prekindergarten to fifth. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic population and smaller Asian and multiracial communities; very few Black students are enrolled. The school sits on Woodside Road in Riverside, walkable from the historic village core and embedded in a landscape of parks, curvilinear streets, and the Des Plaines River.

District 96, which operates the school, has been investing in instructional coaching since the 2021-22 school year, adding experienced teacher-coaches to work inside classrooms on pedagogy. The district approved a third coach in spring 2024 and planned a fourth for 2025-26. This reflects a deliberate commitment to teaching practice that spans the elementary and junior high schools. The district also negotiated a multi-year teacher contract in 2021 that raised starting salaries and reduced employee health insurance contributions, a step toward retention that matters for classroom continuity.

Housing values in the Riverside zip code have risen modestly year-over-year and sit above state median home value, reflecting the village's appeal to affluent families and its landmark status. The community itself is built out and nearly flat in population, constrained by historic preservation rules and the original Olmsted design; development is incremental rather than expansionary. For families considering the school, this means a stable, low-density residential environment with limited new construction.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 83% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 73% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 43 pts above county median

Grade 579%

School 79% · District 76% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 49 pts above state median · ▲ 57 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 71% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 475%

School 75% · District 77% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 586%

School 86% · District 86% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 40 pts above county median

Science

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 63% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

This schoolRiverside SD 96, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.