Riverside Middle

Riverside Middle is a public school in Williamston, NC, serving 335 students in grades 6-8 as part of Martin County Schools.

Riverside is a school on the rise. In just three years, its statewide ranking climbed from the 10th percentile to the 38th percentile, making it the highest-ranked middle school in the immediate area. It now outperforms nearby South Creek Middle, Wellcome Middle, Bertie Middle, and P S Jones Middle in overall academic performance. A notable area of strength is 8th grade math, where 59.6% of students are proficient—a rate that exceeds the state average and far surpasses every nearby school. This represents a dramatic one-year jump of over 32 percentage points. The school also stands out for its attendance; its chronic absenteeism rate of 22.8% is the lowest among all comparable schools in the region and is a clear improvement from just a few years ago.

While the overall progress is encouraging, challenges remain. The current 8th grade class is performing especially well, but 6th and 7th grade scores, particularly in reading, still lag behind the state average, suggesting the school's success is not yet consistent across all grade levels. Additionally, although White and African American students are performing above the state median for their groups, Hispanic students and special education students rank significantly lower. Special education, in particular, saw a sharp decline in statewide ranking over the last year. For parents, this indicates a school with strong momentum and clear pockets of excellence, but one where success is still uneven. The leadership at Riverside appears to be making effective changes, and for a school where almost all students come from low-income households, the upward trend is a promising sign for the community.