Ridgewood Elementary School vs Markham Elementary School

Markham Elementary School outranks Ridgewood Elementary School by 35 spots on Oregon's state rankings — #29 versus #64 out of 1,226 schools — and holds a 0.4-point overall rating advantage at 9.3/10 versus Ridgewood's 8.9/10. That gap is meaningful at the top of a 1,226-school distribution, where the schools are separated by only 4.5 miles yet occupy distinctly different tiers.

On academic proficiency, Ridgewood Elementary School leads with a 9.8/10 academic score compared to Markham Elementary School's 9.4/10 — a real but modest delta. Growth tells the opposite story: Markham Elementary School scores 9.4/10 on growth versus Ridgewood's 8.5/10, a full 0.9-point gap. Growth measures how much students improve relative to peers with similar starting points, so Markham is producing stronger year-over-year gains across its student body despite Ridgewood's edge in raw proficiency.

Demographically, these two schools serve meaningfully different populations. Ridgewood Elementary School enrolls 378 students with 25% qualifying for free or reduced lunch; Markham Elementary School enrolls 402 students with 64% on free or reduced lunch — more than double the economic need. Markham also maintains a slightly tighter student-teacher ratio at 16.1:1 versus Ridgewood's 17.2:1, giving each teacher roughly one fewer student per classroom. Markham's higher growth score alongside a significantly higher-need population suggests its instructional model is particularly effective at accelerating students who arrive with gaps.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families with children across the elementary years face no structural difference in grade configuration. The divide that matters is context: Ridgewood's 9.8 academic score reflects a high-proficiency baseline, while Markham's 9.4 growth score signals active, measurable acceleration. Parents choosing purely on demonstrated academic output start from a higher floor at Ridgewood; parents prioritizing instructional momentum and value-added gains get a stronger signal from Markham.