Summary:
There is one elementary school, Ridge Elementary, serving grades PK through 5 in zip code 20680, located in Ridge, Maryland, within the St. Mary's County Public Schools district.
Ridge Elementary has a mixed performance profile. Its standout strength is 5th Grade Science, where 44.8% of students were proficient in 2025-2026, significantly outperforming both the district (38.1%) and state (32.4%). However, the school faces a critical weakness in 4th Grade Mathematics, with only 13.6% proficiency compared to the district average of 42.8%. This represents a dramatic 30.2 percentage point drop from 3rd grade math scores, suggesting a potential issue with the 4th-grade math curriculum or instruction. Overall, the school's state ranking has improved, jumping to the 59th percentile (3 stars) in 2025-2026 from the 44th percentile the previous year.
Key metrics include an enrollment of 209 students, a student-teacher ratio of 13.5:1, and spending of $21,930 per student. Over half the student body (54.55%) is economically disadvantaged, and chronic absenteeism is high at 31.2%, nearly 4 percentage points above the district average. While overall English Language Arts proficiency (51.8%) is slightly above the state average, 5th graders excel in this subject (55.2% proficient). The high per-student spending does not guarantee top performance, as math and ELA scores remain below district averages, highlighting the need to address chronic absenteeism and the 4th-grade math gap as key levers for improvement.
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