Riddle Elementary School

Riddle Elementary School is one of the sizable primary schools in Mattoon, Illinois, run under Mattoon CUSD 2, with 589 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. That puts it 55% larger than the typical public school in Illinois, which averages around 381 students.

Mattoon CUSD 2 comprises 5 schools with combined enrollment of 2,983 students; Riddle Elementary School is among them.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Riddle Elementary School logs that 79% of the student body identifies as White. Beyond that, the school lists 10% multiracial, 7% Hispanic, 4% Black. The wider county runs roughly 90% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Riddle Elementary School has 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 71% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Coles County runs at roughly 55%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Riddle Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 30.4%; this one delivers 35.5%.

Around the school, the surrounding county (Coles County) logs that median household income runs about $56,478, roughly 27% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 12%. Riddle Elementary School is one of 23 public schools in Coles County (combined enrollment of about 5,973 students).

Mattoon High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.6 miles from this campus. 4 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Riddle Elementary School comes 5th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 37.5%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 20%: 736 students in 2018 compared to 589 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share declined from 87% to 79%. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 16.6:1 in 2018 to 14.5:1 today.

On allk12, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.