Original Research by School Decision on Taylor-richardton Elementary School
Taylor-Richardton Elementary School sits in the small rural community of Taylor, North Dakota, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade as part of the Richardton-Taylor 34 district. The school is a regular public school, and its enrollment is modest, spread across a handful of grade levels with the largest concentrations in first and second grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a small share of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a similar portion of Hispanic students. A substantial portion of the children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here. The school's Title I status was also not reported.
Taylor itself is a very small town in Stark County, part of the Dickinson Micropolitan Statistical Area. Publicly reported sources describe it as a quiet residential settlement founded along the Northern Pacific Railway, with agricultural surroundings and no significant commercial sector. Civic life centers on City Hall and Taylor Park, with basic municipal services like weekly trash collection and a city landfill open by request. There is no public library or transit system in town. The nearest substantial civic and commercial amenities are in Dickinson, a short drive to the southeast, where many residents likely commute for work. Taylor's population surged during western North Dakota's oil boom after decades of decline, then settled into a slight annual decrease in recent years. No major housing developments or commercial construction projects were identified in available sources. The district brief turned up little of lasting impact regarding recent changes, so there is nothing to report on that front.
On state assessments, Taylor-Richardton Elementary uses the ND A-PLUS exam, which is a relatively new assessment with changed proficiency cut scores. That means trend comparisons to prior years are not reliable, and the school has only a single year of results under this system. In English language arts, the school's overall proficiency rate sits below half of tested students. Math proficiency is lower still, with fewer than two-fifths of students scoring proficient or above. Science, tested only in fourth grade, lands in the middle, with close to half of students reaching proficiency. At the grade level, third-grade math and ELA proficiency ranges are reported in bands rather than point estimates, reflecting the small testing population and privacy protections. Fourth-grade ranges are similarly wide. Participation rates were solid in third grade and somewhat lower in fourth grade. Because the assessment system changed alongside its cut scores, parents should treat these results as a baseline rather than a trend, and a parent may want to look into how the school is responding to these early A-PLUS results with the administration.
Housing in the Taylor area is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value in the school's zip code sits below the North Dakota statewide figure and well below the national figure. Year-over-year home value growth has been moderate. Estimated monthly mortgage costs are manageable for a household earning near the national median income, with a price-to-income ratio that compares favorably to much of the country. Rental data was not available for this area, so families looking to rent rather than buy will need to search local listings directly.
What this school offers is a small early-grades environment in a rural community where neighbors know each other and civic life is compact. The academic results are mixed, with reading stronger than math, and the new assessment framework means there is no reliable year-over-year picture yet. Families drawn to quiet small-town living within commuting distance of Dickinson may find the setting appealing, and those with concerns about the early math numbers would do well to ask the school directly what supports and interventions are in place.
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