Riverdahl Elem School

Riverdahl Elem School is an elementary-level community of moderately sized scale in Rockford, Illinois, run under Rockford SD 205, works with 535 students in grades K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 40% larger than the state mean of about 381.

Riverdahl Elem School is one of 44 schools operated by Rockford SD 205, a district that hosts 28,467 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Riverdahl Elem School records that the largest single group is Black at 41%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder breaks down as 25% White, 22% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 3% Asian. That is noticeably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 12%.

On the resource side, On paper, Riverdahl Elem School has 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 17.5:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.9:1, putting Riverdahl Elem School higher than the state norm the norm. About 88% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Winnebago County (around 61%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Riverdahl Elem School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 20.9%, the actual is 12.9%, a residual of -7.9 points.

Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Winnebago County) logs that the typical household earns roughly $65,837 per year, 25% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 11%. In all, Winnebago County runs 94 public schools (combined enrollment of about 44,103 students), of which Riverdahl Elem School is one.

Wm Nashold Early Childhood Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.4 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Riverdahl Elem School at 5th of 7; the average score across the group is 19.6%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Riverdahl Elem School has contracted 17%, going from 648 students in 2018 to 535 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share climbed from 27% to 41%.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.