Riverside Elementary

Riverside Elementary is a PK–6 school in Sunland Park, New Mexico, serving 550 students — the largest enrollment of the nine comparable Gadsden Independent Schools elementary campuses in this comparison — in a high-poverty border community where 100% of students have qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in each of the last three reported years.

The school is a bright spot inside a middling district. Gadsden Independent Schools ranks 54th of 87 districts statewide (38th percentile, 2 stars), while Riverside ranked 112th of 346 New Mexico elementary schools in 2025–26 (68th percentile, 3 stars) — the top third of the state. It has held the 65th–68th percentile for four straight reported years, after sitting in the bottom 15% of the state in 2014–15. Math is the standout: 49.36% proficiency against a state figure of 25.54% (a gap of nearly 24 points), while ELA runs 48.73% versus 43.34% statewide. Results climb sharply by grade — 5th-grade math is 72.60% versus 33.85% at state, and 6th-grade math 65.71% versus 31.89% — but 3rd grade lands below both district and state in both subjects, the clearest area to watch. Science is the outlier weakness: 5th-grade science is 22.54% (NM-ASR) / 24.66% (NM Combined), below the district's 28.38% and the state's 32.24%.

Among nearby campuses, Riverside trails only La Union Elementary (84th percentile) on the combined measure and is essentially tied with Desert Trail Elementary atop the math column. Its closest neighbor, Desert View Elementary (1.8 miles), trails by roughly 5 points in ELA and 14 in math. Students from low-income families — nearly the whole roster — rank in the 74th percentile (4 stars), though English-language learners and special education students sit near the 45th percentile (2 stars). Class sizes (13.4 students per teacher) are mid-pack, so results aren't explained by smaller classes. Reaching the 70th percentile of 2018–19 is the next visible milestone.