1
What's the vibe like in the hallways at Ridgecrest Elementary School right now?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
463
Elementary
DISTRICT 475 · STATE 480
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HUNTSVILLE CITY·NCES 010180000643
Ridgecrest Elementary School
3505 Cerro Vista Street SW, Huntsville, AL 35805 · (256) 428-7380 · Madison County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL463 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 10% of Alabama public elementary schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alabama public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
15.4:1
30 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.0:1 · STATE 17.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
70%
323 students
DISTRICT 50% · STATE 58%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 33 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 72 | 16% |
| Grade 1 | 79 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 80 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 76 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 61 | 13% |
| Grade 5 | 62 | 13% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 16% larger than its 5th grade class (62).
Student demographics
59%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 69% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ACAP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
39.7%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
24.5%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 40 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 25 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
Source: ACAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
28.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.3%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 29% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 33% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alabama's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Ridgecrest Elementary School
Ridgecrest Elementary School's state test result (28.8% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgecrest Elementary School this school | 463 | 69.8% | 28.8% |
| Austinville Elementary School Decatur | 463 | 67.6% | 41.9% |
| McDonnell Elementary School Huntsville | 511 | 66.5% | 20.7% |
| Oak Park Elementary School Decatur | 481 | 70.9% | 20.5% |
| BanksCaddell Elementary School Decatur | 477 | 76.5% | 30.4% |
| Woodmeade Elementary School Decatur | 361 | 67.6% | 38.1% |
Matched among Alabama elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Ridgecrest Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Madison County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 28.8% | #520 of 626 | #40 of 48 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 24.5% | #467 of 626 | #37 of 48 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 39.7% | #550 of 626 | #41 of 48 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 463 | #358 of 709 | #32 of 50 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.4:1 | #135 of 655 | #6 of 49 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.5% | #180 of 658 | #27 of 49 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 69.8% | #227 of 696 | #9 of 49 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -23.5% | #66 of 364 | #6 of 29 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
463
-45 (-9%) vs 2020
-8% since 1990-91, when it was 504
Student : Teacher
15.4:1
was 14.1:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 463 | 30 | 15.4:1 | 70% (323) |
| 2023-24 | 506 | 31 | 16.3:1 | 88% (447) |
| 2022-23 | 511 | 29 | 17.6:1 | 85% (436) |
| 2020-21 | 508 | 36 | 14.1:1 | 88% (446) |
| 2017-18 | 605 | 39.6 | 15.3:1 | 87% (525) |
| 2015-16 | 686 | 40 | 17.1:1 | 56% (386) |
| 2010-11 | 439 | 32 | 13.7:1 | 86% (376) |
| 2000-01 | 485 | 34 | 14.3:1 | 78% (379) |
| 1990-91 | 504 | 29 | 17.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Ridgecrest Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 23% (605 to 463); teachers down 24% (39.6 to 30).
About Ridgecrest Elementary School
Ridgecrest Elementary School is a medium-sized elementary school in Huntsville, Alabama, administered by Huntsville City. The school enrolls 463 students, from pre-K through 5.
Huntsville City has 44 schools; together they serve 24,222 students.
At Ridgecrest Elementary School, Hispanic students make up 57% of the student body. It is also 27% Black, 10% White, and 3% multiracial. For comparison, the population of Madison County is roughly 7% Hispanic. Pick two students at random and there is a 59% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Its 30 full-time-equivalent teachers give the school a ratio of 15.4:1. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 17.0:1 average for elementary schools in Alabama. The school's lunch program data list 70% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The rate at public schools in Madison County averages 41%, lower than here.
Ridgecrest Elementary School is graded D by allk12, scoring above 10% of Alabama public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Ridgecrest Elementary School is -4.5 points: 28.8% actual, 33.3% predicted.
Madison County has about 405,718 residents, and the median household income is $86,499, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 46% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. In all, Madison County has 89 public schools and roughly 55,800 students.
McDonnell Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.9 miles away. Within five miles of Ridgecrest Elementary School, there are at least 8 other public schools. Of 8 schools in the immediate area with test results, Ridgecrest Elementary School ranks 4th on average proficiency.
Ridgecrest Elementary School is coded as City: Mid-size in federal locale data.
Ridgecrest Elementary School's enrollment declined from 508 in 2020-21 to 463 in 2024-25. Students per teacher rose from 14.1 in 2020-21 to 15.4 in 2024-25.
The discussion area below is open to posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Madison County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
405,718
Census ACS
Median income
$86,499
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
89
55,800 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Huntsville City
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- GoldsmithSchiffman ElementaryElementary · 935 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Other schools in Huntsville
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- Monrovia Middle SchoolMiddle · 988 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Other Ridgecrest Elementary schools
9 other US public schools in 6 states are named Ridgecrest Elementary. Ridgecrest Elementary School is the 4th largest of the 10.
- Ridgecrest Elementary SchoolPhenix City, AL · 722 students
- Ridgecrest Elementary SchoolHOUSTON, TX · 836 students
- Ridgecrest ElementaryHyattsville, MD · 631 students
- Ridgecrest Elementary SchoolLawton, OK · 456 students
- Ridgecrest ElementaryPuyallup, WA · 456 students
Nearby schools
- McDonnell Elementary School0.9 mi · 511
- Morris Middle School1.0 mi · 397
- Morris Elementary School1.0 mi · 532
- Sonnie Hereford Elementary School2.4 mi · 578
- Huntsville High School2.4 mi · 1,807
- Huntsville Junior High School3.1 mi · 530
Frequently asked questions
About Ridgecrest Elementary SchoolHow large is Ridgecrest Elementary School?
Ridgecrest Elementary School enrolls approximately 463 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Ridgecrest Elementary School serve?
Ridgecrest Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Ridgecrest Elementary School?
Approximately 15.4:1 students per teacher at Ridgecrest Elementary School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Ridgecrest Elementary School?
At Ridgecrest Elementary School, the student body is approximately 10% White, 57% Hispanic, 27% Black, 2% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is Ridgecrest Elementary School public or private?
Ridgecrest Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Huntsville City.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.