The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Riverside Elementary - Cedar Rapids
Riverside Elementary in Cedar Rapids sits within the Riverside Public Schools district, which serves the small, rural village of Cedar Rapids and likely draws from the surrounding Boone County countryside. Cedar Rapids is a very small village with a gradually declining population over recent decades, a Main Street downtown, and a handful of civic anchors: three churches, a public library, a swimming pool, and three city parks. The school complex itself is within the village footprint, not on a separated campus, and athletic fields adjoin the building. Housing values in the area are well below state and national averages, and the primary local employers are the school district itself and a part-time health clinic. Law enforcement is contracted through the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, and there is no public transit.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Enrollment is small, with an even distribution across grades, though the pre-kindergarten group makes up a notable share. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up a modest share. Roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that places this school’s economic need somewhere in line with many rural Nebraska elementary schools. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available in the source files.
State test results present an incomplete picture concentrated on a single recent year. In mathematics, proficiency rates were reported at zero for third, fourth, and fifth grades. In English language arts, the same pattern holds: zero percent proficient across all three tested grades. In science, fifth-grade results also show zero percent proficient. Multi-year trend data, however, tells a different story when viewed across the school as a whole. In the five most recent data points pooled across grades, the English language arts proficiency rate stood at about half of students proficient. The math proficiency rate across those same five data points was above half. The science rate across the two most recent data points was zero. There is a clear tension between the pooled trend and the single-year grade-level breakdowns, and the sharp drop from the pooled multi-year math figure to the single-year zeros is something a parent would want to ask the school about directly. The district has no reported changes in assessments or cut scores that would explain the shift. When compared with the other district in Boone County, this school’s overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, though the cohort contains only two districts, so that placement should be understood as a narrow comparison.
Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate, no advanced coursework data, and no postsecondary readiness measures. Program offerings beyond the core curriculum were not reported in the available data. The district itself has no recent policy, curriculum, referendum, or tax changes of lasting parent impact that were found in publicly available records. This is a school where a parent should expect to ask direct questions about how instruction is delivered and what supports are in place for students who are not yet meeting benchmarks. The small size and rural setting mean that families choosing this school are likely doing so because of its place in the community and the district, not because of a broad menu of options. The village is not growing, and the economic base is thin, so the school is one of the central institutions holding the community together.
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