Riverside is one of five high schools in the Durham Public School System. The 21st century facility opened in August of 1991, drawing students who formerly were assigned to Jordan and Northern High Schools. The school has been designated a math and science teacher center for Duke University and was selected by the North Carolina Schol of Science and Mathematics to pilot several newly developed distance-learning courses and the ProjectCalc curriculum. Students are enrolled in six courses each semester. Each semester is divided into two nine-week grading periods.
Credit is granted on a semester basis.
Riverside is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the NC Department of Public Instruction.