Summary:
In zip code 21660, there is one elementary school, Ridgely Elementary School, serving grades PK through 5 with 433 students in the Caroline County Public Schools district, an area where nearly 60% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Ridgely Elementary School shows a clear split in academic performance. In mathematics, the school outperforms both the district and state averages, with 31.1% of all students proficient compared to 23.7% for the district and 27.1% for the state. A standout bright spot is 4th-grade math, where 43.9% of students are proficient—well above the state average of 34.8%. However, English Language Arts (ELA) is a significant weakness, with only 41.5% of all students proficient, nearly 10 points below the state average of 51.7%. This gap persists across all grade levels, suggesting a need for stronger literacy instruction. The school also has a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12.3:1 and spends $19,934 per student, which is notably high, yet these resources have not translated into higher overall state rankings, which have remained stable between the 43rd and 47th percentile over the last three years, earning a 2-star rating.
Chronic absenteeism stands at 27.0%, slightly better than the district average of 28.0%, but still a concern. The school’s 5th-grade science proficiency (25.7%) is just above the district average but below the state. The most interesting takeaway is the "4th-grade math anomaly"—a sharp spike in performance that does not carry over to 5th grade, where math proficiency drops to 23.3%. This pattern, combined with high spending and low ELA scores, suggests that while the school invests heavily in resources, it may need to re-evaluate how those resources are used, particularly for literacy and sustaining math gains across grade levels.
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