Original Research by School Decision on Richardton-taylor Elementary School
Richardton-Taylor Elementary School sits in Richardton, a small rural prairie town in Stark County, North Dakota, part of the Dickinson micropolitan area. The town was founded as a Northern Pacific Railway station and grew with German-Russian Catholic settlers, a heritage still visible in Assumption Abbey, the Benedictine monastery that anchors the community. The built environment is modest single-family homes and small local businesses spread across low-density residential streets. Most daily trips happen by personal vehicle; no transit or walkability data was found. Some residents likely commute west to Dickinson for work, given the town's small size and limited local employer base. The locale brief notes population swings tied to western North Dakota's oil boom, with a recent estimate suggesting modest growth. No dedicated information on parks, a library, or recreation within Richardton was available, and some civic and library services may be shared with neighboring Taylor or accessed in Dickinson.
The school itself is a regular public school in the Richardton-Taylor 34 district, serving grades five and six. It is a very small school by any measure, with just two grade levels and an enrollment that fits within that narrow band. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a single American Indian student. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. No data on English learners or students with individualized education programs was available, so those populations, if present, are not reflected here. The school is neither a charter nor a magnet, and no Title I status was reported.
State assessment results come from North Dakota's A-PLUS test for the current school year. The state reports proficiency as a range rather than a point estimate, and the assessment itself has undergone changes in both name and cut scores, which means trend comparisons to prior years are not reliable. For the grades the school actually enrolls, fifth-grade math proficiency falls in a low-to-moderate band, and sixth-grade math lands somewhat higher, in a moderate band. English language arts for fifth grade sits in a similar low-to-moderate range, while sixth-grade ELA reaches a moderate-to-higher band. Across all grades and subjects combined, ELA proficiency is reported at a moderate level, math at a lower level, and science at a similar lower level.
One thing a parent may notice is that the assessment data also includes results for seventh and eighth grades, which do not correspond to the school's official grade band or its enrolled students. This may reflect a shared building, a reporting arrangement, or a recent reconfiguration, but the data provided does not explain the discrepancy. Those upper-grade results are mixed: seventh-grade ELA reaches a higher proficiency band, while seventh-grade math spans a very wide range, and eighth-grade results across math, ELA, and science sit in lower bands. Participation rates are generally solid, with most grades at or near full participation, though one grade's participation dips below that level.
No multi-year trend data is available beyond the current year, so there is no way to assess whether performance is improving or declining over time. The assessment change flags mean even the single-year results should be read as a fresh baseline rather than a continuation of prior patterns.
The housing market in the school's zip code is more affordable than both the state and national benchmarks. Home values have been rising at a healthy pace year over year, with the typical home price sitting well below the national figure and moderately below the state figure. Estimated monthly mortgage costs are moderate relative to national median household income. No rental data was available for this area, so families considering renting rather than buying would need to look elsewhere for guidance. The locale brief reports a housing affordability index in a favorable range and a moderate socioeconomic profile for the town.
We looked for the district's strategic priorities or recent changes and found little of lasting impact, so that is left out rather than guessed. No information on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or specialized programs was provided. A parent weighing this school will want to ask the district directly about how the fifth and sixth grades connect to the upper grades whose test results appear here, what support services exist for struggling students given the lower math and science results, and what the transition looks like from this two-grade school into whatever comes next.
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