EDC 102: Andrew Kelley

North Kingstown School Department

Context Report

Celia Tafuri 10/14/2008

Tafuri 2 Celia Tafuri EDC 102 Andrew Kelley Context Statement North Kingstown School Department

North Kingstown is settled in southern Rhode Island and is near towns such as East Greenwich, South Kingstown, Exeter, and Jamestown. It is located in Washington County and has more than 26,000 residents. Out of that population in 2000 6,848 of them were children (Kids Count, 2008). North Kingstown has a large base of children and the population in the town seems to be growing. The town has many promising students that have achieved high standards for the State of Rhode Island. North Kingstown had 6,848 children in 2000 but in 1990 there were 6,076 (Kids Count, 2008). In those ten years 772 new children moved to the area or were born. A new group of people are entering North Kingstown and their paychecks are more than the average North Kingstown resident. According to Kids Count 2008 these families have a higher income because the medium house income went up from $52,733 in 1990 to $60,027 in 2000. The median household income in Rhode Island is only $42,090 which is far less than the $60,027 in North Kingstown. North Kingstown is attracting families from the city that want to settle down in a nice suburb. Also they may be moving to the area because there is a new train station that is being created in the town which will make commuting easier. North Kingstown is also attracting wealthier people because of its strong school system. But unfortunately the wealth that is moving into the town is raising the cost of living for its residents. And along with the cost of living increasing that will make it harder for the lower class to get by. In North Kingstown in 1990 4.7% of children were living in families that were below the poverty threshold (Kids Count, 2008). In 2000 that number jumped up to 9.6%. It is getting more

Tafuri 3 difficult for families in North Kingstown to get by with the raising property taxes that the town must ensue. According to the Tax Roll in 2000 North Kingstowns residential real estate tax rate was 24.65. That rate is much higher in comparison to the 13.30 residential real estate tax rates in 2008 (State of Rhode Island, 2006, 2007). In between 2000 and 2008 there was a huge influx in real-estate properties. Real estate agents were selling houses for large amounts of money and new houses were being built all over town. But once this real estate craze ended it became much harder to sell homes. The residential real estate tax dropped down to 13.30 because the public was not buying housing anymore. They couldnt afford the rising prices so buyers just stopped buying and tried to save their money. Therefore to encourage people to participate in real estate they lowered real estate taxes to make housing more affordable. That dramatic change in real estate taxes shows how difficult it was to afford housing in North Kingstown. Now the middle and lower class have taken a huge hit to their bank accounts which makes living in North Kingstown much harder than it has been before. The parents of North Kingstowns students must be having a difficult time supporting their family, especially the families that are below the poverty line. With all the troubles families deal with it must be hard for those students to concentrate on their studies. Some may be trying to work to support their family. Students in these situations may add to the 2% dropout rate that the North Kingstown School Department (NKSD) has (Kids Count, 2008). That percentage is more acceptable than the 11% percent that Rhode Island has as a whole but it is still unfortunate. But in recent years the percentage of teens that are not in school and are not working has gone down from 3.3% to 1.1% between 1990 and 2000(Kids Count, 2008). Perhaps teenagers are realizing that without proper schooling it is extremely hard to get a job to support oneself. But with the recent financial difficulties these positive percentages may revert back to the way they were in the early nineties.

Tafuri 4 For families that are going through financial difficulties the school breakfast program is crucial for them to take advantage of. In 2007 in the NKSD 30% of income-eligible children took advantage of the program (Kids Count, 2008). This percentage has steadily increased since 2003. It was during those years around 2003 where the real-estate boom occurred. With prices soaring, the school breakfast program was more attractive to families dealing with financial hardships. Food during the school day is provided for their children so that it is one less thing that they have to worry about. North Kingstown is not a very racially diverse town. The diversity is extremely sparse due to the fact that 96% percent of the students are white. 4% of students are African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American (Info Works, 2006-07). The small amount of diverse students might make them feel alone in the NKSD. Without other students to relate to they may feel discouraged to make many friends or strive to healthfully compete with other students. Technically it is not the school departments fault but teachers should be encouraging students of unique ethnic backgrounds to do well in school. If the encouragement is there from elementary school to high school the students will have a greater chance of success. Many of North Kingstowns students are not in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program; about 1% of them are (Info Works, 2006-07). Although this proves that the NKSD is not diverse it gives special, individual attention to those students that are learning the language. Some of the top reasons for suspensions in the high school are alcohol, skipping classes, disorderly conduct, fighting, and obscene language to a teacher (Info Works, 2006-07). These offenses are stemmed from disrespect of a person or a thing. Respect is a crucial vice that should be instilled in students at a young age. But with many kids dealing with problems within their family they might take out their anger through other things such as skipping class or talking back to a teacher. Without a way to cope with their problems they take it out in ways that wont help their growth in school. The student will get discouraged that no one will listen to their problems and take out their anger in other abusive ways. With proper guidance these students can improve their scores in testing in school.

Tafuri 5 The growth for many students between elementary school and high school is vital in their overall schooling. When you look at charts of proficiency scores the students of povertys scores go down as they reach high school. For Mathematics testing 44% of fifth grade students in poverty did not reach proficiency. For eighth graders that number went up to 62% and in eleventh grade that number went up to 74% (Info Works, 2006-07). Obviously the students in poverty have fallen far behind in their proficiency tests. Only 30% of eleventh grades that are not in poverty did not reach proficiency in Math. Elementary school students scores are about the same whether in poverty or not. But once those students get to middle school and high school the divide gets wider and wider. Even though these students should be treated the same in school something happened during those years to discourage them. Maybe the role models in their home are not striving for a better life and the students are not trying to higher their state of living through education because no one has encouraged them to. In High School the standardized test scores are very important to the town. They are a part of the students graduation requirement. In this coming school year the standardized tests will count as 33% of their graduation requirement. If the students do not test well that will jeopardize their chance of graduating. Dylan Morin a sophomore at North Kingstown High School said that Im not strong at test taking, and this will make me more stressed on how well I do. I want to graduate and the testing might be an obstacle (personal communication, October 13, 2008). This student is obviously worried about his future due to the testing that will count for a large part of his graduation requirement. This opinion is from a student who is in college-prepatory classes at his high school. But what are the opinions of students in general classes? It must be much more difficult for students who are in general classes to be able to graduate. Many students that are in general classes are also the students that are impoverish. Graduating has become an even greater issue now that these new hoops have been added. When looking at proficiency test scores of high school students in the NKSD there is a noticeable difference in grades between 2007 and 2006. In 2007 the entire schools grade was an 87.1 in

Tafuri 6 Mathematics which surpasses the target score of 63.2 (Rhode Island Dept., 2005-2007). But the economically disadvantaged students only got a 66.8. The students that are economically disadvantaged got lower scores than the rest of the students in testing. In 2007 students were required to take that test so that they could graduate. The economically disadvantaged students did pass the test but their numbers have gone down. In 2006 economically disadvantaged students got a 74.8 on the test (Rhode Island Dept., 2005-2007). Those students scores have lowered 8 points in one year. If this decline keeps proceeding then those students will not be able to graduate because their scores are too low. Without proper encouragement and guidance for those students their grades will keep slipping below the normal North Kingstown student. The typical North Kingstown student probably does not have to worry about having a job to support their family. But the small amount of students that do have to worry will suffer. The North Kingstown School Department must make sure that their students that are economically challenged get all of the support that they need. Although the normal North Kingstown student may have everything set out before them does not mean that there are students who do not need help. Students in elementary school are doing a great job in testing so that should be continued up to high school. If they put more of a focus on economically disadvantaged students then they will maintain their high graduation rate of 97.4% (Rhode Island Dept., 2005-2007).

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References Information Works District Report Cards: North Kingstown. (2006-07). Retrieved October 4, 2008 from Information Works: Rhode Island. Website: http://infoworks.ride.uri. edu/2008 /queries/FindDis t.asp?District=23 Kids Count: Indicators or Child Well-Being. (2008). Retrieved September 30, 2008, from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. Website: http://rikidscount.org/matriarch/documents/North_Kingstown2008.pdf Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (2005-2007). School Classifications: School Report Cards. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from Information Serivices. Websites: http://www.eride.ri.gov/reportcard /07/ ReportCard.aspx?schCode=23108&schType=3 State of Rhode Island Municipal Affairs Department of Administration. (2006, 2007). Municipal Tax Rates. Retrieved October 4, 2008 from Finances. Website: http://www.muniinfo.state.ri.us/finances/taxrates .php