Riverdale Grade School

Riverdale Grade School is a public K–8 school in Portland, Oregon, serving 406 students as the only school in Riverdale School District 51J, the top-ranked district in the state. The school itself is ranked #5 of 709 Oregon elementary and middle schools in 2025–2026, placing it in the 99th percentile with a 5-star rating, and it has a long record near the top of the state rankings, including a #1 statewide finish in 2016–2017.

Academically, Riverdale Grade School leads every nearby school. Its 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency rates are 85.7% in English language arts, 79.6% in math, and 71.4% in science. The ELA figure is nearly 9 points above the next-highest nearby school, and the math rate is more than double the state figure. Upper grades are especially strong, with 7th-grade ELA at 93.8% and 8th-grade ELA at 90.7%, while the only nearby K–8 comparison, Cascade Heights Public Charter School, performs far lower in those grades. Neighbors such as Forest Hills Elementary School, Duniway Elementary School, Stephenson Elementary School, Hallinan Elementary School, and Capitol Hill Elementary School are also high performers but rank below Riverdale (#18 through #81 statewide), while North Clackamas School District 12 schools in the comparison set rank between #248 and #552.

Other strengths appear outside test scores. Chronic absenteeism fell to 12.6% in 2024–2025, less than half Oregon's 33.5% rate and below the district's 16.2%; only Stephenson (10.2%), Forest Hills (11.7%), and Duniway (12.1%) are slightly lower nearby. Riverdale spends $19,491 per student — less than most nearby public schools — with a student–teacher ratio of 16.5. Subgroup rankings are strong as well: female students rank #3 statewide, special education students #6, and male students #11, pointing to school-wide instructional effectiveness rather than results driven by one group. Free/reduced lunch data is not reported for recent years, so economic context cannot be compared.