Summary:
ZIP code 02915 has two public schools in East Providence: Waddington School, serving kindergarten through grade 5, and Riverside Middle School, serving grades 6–8. The schools enroll nearly the same number of students, but their latest all-grades results differ substantially. The most important area-wide finding is that Waddington is above state rates in all three subjects, while Riverside Middle is below the state in all three.
Waddington stands out on 2025–26 all-grades results: 36.7% in ELA, 42.4% in math, and 34.1% in science, compared with 20.9%, 24.7%, and 20.2% at Riverside Middle. Those are gaps of 15.8, 17.7, and 13.9 percentage points, respectively. Waddington also exceeds state rates by 3.6 points in ELA, 10.5 in math, and 3.0 in science; Riverside Middle falls short by 12.2, 7.2, and 10.9 points. SchoolDigger rates Waddington 3 stars and in the 64th percentile, versus 2 stars and the 38th percentile for Riverside Middle. The schools serve different grade spans and have separate ranking pools, so these are useful broad snapshots rather than direct same-grade comparisons.
Recent results improved overall, though not at both schools in every subject. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, Waddington rose 3.2 points in ELA, 4.1 in math, and 5.4 in science; Riverside Middle gained 2.0 points in math but declined 1.5 in ELA and 2.0 in science. A notable grade-level exception is Riverside Middle’s grade 8 math, 31.1% versus 30.2% statewide. SchoolDigger’s percentile was steady at 38 for Riverside Middle across three years, while Waddington moved from 60 to 54 to 64. Riverside Middle has a lower student-teacher ratio (10.9 versus 17.3) and higher reported spending per student ($20,798 versus $15,402); its free/reduced-lunch rate is also higher (57.92% versus 47.83%). These are profile differences, not explanations for score results.
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