Original Research by School Decision on Richardton-taylor 34
Richardton-Taylor 34 is a small public school district in Stark County, North Dakota, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across three schools: Richardton-Taylor High School, Richardton-Taylor Elementary School, and Taylor-Richardton Elementary School. The district covers the communities of Richardton, Taylor, and Gladstone, small towns on the western edge of the state. Enrollment is modest, with roughly three to four dozen students per grade level, which gives the district a close-knit feel but also means each cohort's state test results can swing noticeably from year to year.
The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a handful of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. Data on free or reduced-price lunch, special education enrollment, and English learners was not available, so we cannot speak to the economic composition of the student population or the level of specialized support services from the figures provided.
On state assessments, the district used the ND A-PLUS test in the most recent year. This is a new assessment with changed cut scores, so the results cannot be cleanly compared to prior years. The state reported proficiency in ranges rather than single point estimates, which is common for small districts where individual student privacy limits precision. In English language arts, results were mixed but tilted toward the stronger side in several grades. Third grade and seventh grade stood out with relatively higher proficiency ranges, while fifth grade was the weakest. Reading performance in the upper elementary and middle grades generally landed in a moderate band.
Math results told a more uneven story. Sixth grade showed the strongest proficiency range in the district, but eighth grade math was quite low, and fourth and seventh grades also sat in the lower bands. Science was tested in fourth and eighth grades, with fourth grade landing in a moderate range and eighth grade on the weaker end. Participation rates were solid across most grades, though a couple of grades dipped below the others. Taken together, the academic picture suggests a district where literacy is a relative strength and math is an area where a parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly in the middle grades.
No graduation rate was provided for the district, which limits the picture of how students fare at the high school level. We also looked for data on advanced coursework, career and technical education, dual-credit opportunities, staffing ratios, discipline incidents, and attendance. None of that was available in the provided materials, so we left it out rather than guess. The district brief noted a search for recent parent-relevant changes turned up little of lasting impact, which means there are no major shifts or controversies to flag.
Housing in the district is affordable by both state and national standards. Home values across the three communities sit well below the North Dakota state benchmark and considerably below the national figure, with Richardton and Taylor carrying the bulk of the district's housing weight. Gladstone's values run higher. Year-over-year appreciation has been steady, and the estimated mortgage burden relative to income looks manageable for a family earning near the national median. This is a place where homeownership is within reach for many households, which matters for families weighing a move into the attendance area.
What Richardton-Taylor offers is a small, rural, continuous pre-kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade pathway in a single district, with the kind of cohort intimacy that comes from small grade sizes. The academic results are uneven, stronger in reading than in math, and several key data points are absent from what was available. For a family already in or drawn to this part of Stark County, the district provides a stable, community-rooted option. For those weighing it against larger or better-documented districts nearby, the gaps in available information are worth asking about directly.
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