toll+gate+high+school+fall+2011

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= Brianna Accetturo =  Toll Gate High School

= = = = ==Mission: To maintain an educational, supportive, and safe environment that encourages the life-long learning necessary to reach one's full potential in becoming a productive and responsible citizen in our ever changing society. == =**Introduction** = =Toll Gate High School is situated in the City of Warwick, County of Kent, and State of Rhode Island. The high school’s host City of Warwick is located on both Naragansett and East Greenwich Bays and boasts over 39 miles of coastline including access to city and state beaches and parks. Warwick is conveniently located only 10 miles south of Rhode Island’s capital City of Providence and is home to the state’s largest airport, T.F. Green, which sees over 5 million travelers a year. A newly constructed train station is linked to the airport by a people mover making Warwick a desirable place to live and work as residents can easily travel around the country for business or pleasure by plane, train or automobile. With over 86,000 people, the city has three public high schools and Toll Gate is one of them. Toll Gate is unique in that it boarders the very affluent Town of East Greenwich and a portion of the school’s student population comes through the Town of East Greenwich. One can experience the best of both worlds in Warwick with access to modern conveniences offered by a larger city while still being able to experience the quality of life found in quaint New England villages. Toll Gate’s High School Principal is Stephen Chrabaszcz and he is a graduate of Brown University. With his guidance, a modern day website services the needs of students, parents, teachers and staff with valuable information including school calendars, public service announcements, sports information, school forms, graduation requirements, summer assignments and college scholarship information. I trust that the information I am providing here is a valuable tool to helping families determine if the Toll Gate High School is in a community that will they will enjoy and which will provide them with a safe, rich, and nurturing educational environment. = = = =**Community Background** = =Warwick is an above average community as far as wealth is concerned. The median household income in Warwick is $46,483 compared with the average for Rhode Island of $42,290. The median family income is $56,225 in Warwick which is above the Rhode Island state average of $52,781. On a per capita income basis, Warwick is again ahead of the state average with a per capita income of $23,410 while the state’s average is $21,688. Poverty is not a large concern for Warwick either with 973 people living below the poverty level while the state has 23,608 of the people living below the poverty level. This is also true when one examines individuals living below the poverty level in Warwick with 5,033 compared with the rest of the State of Rhode Island with 120,548. Ethnic diversity is not a strong point when examining Warwick’s statistical averages in contrast to the rest of the state as the white population in Warwick is 76,643 (92.7%) and greatly outnumbers all other races. In fact, it greatly outnumbers the State of Rhode Island average of white’s which is 81.4% (856,869). Warwick has only: 1,387 (1.7%) Black/African Americans; 1,864 (2.3%) Asians; 2,827 (3.4%) Hispanics; and 31 (0.1%) American Indian or Alaska natives. The State of Rhode Island has: 60,199 (5.7%) Black/African Americans; 30,457 (2.9%) Asians; 130,655 (12.4%) Hispanics; and 2038 (0.2%) American Indian or Alaska natives. (Information found on Fact Finder: Census). =


 * __Income/Poverty Data Table__**
 * || Warwick || Rhode Island ||
 * Median household income || $46,483 || $42,090 ||
 * Median family income || $56,225 || $52,781 ||
 * Per capita income || $23,410 || $21,688 ||
 * Families below poverty level || 973 || 23,608 ||
 * Individuals below poverty level || 5,033 || 120,548 ||

= = =**As Warwick is the second largest city in Rhode Island, it is not surprising that it has a child population of 18,780 while the state’s entire child population is 247,822. The number of children living in single-parent families in Warwick (21%) is below the state average (30%). Despite being the second largest city in Rhode Island, it is interesting to note that only 6.7 % of children live below the poverty line in Warwick while the state average is 16.9%. This trend also continues when examining the number of teens in the city not in school and not working (4.9%) which is again below the state average of (7.9%). In contrast, the percentage of households with grandparents that are financially responsible for grandchildren is the same at 4% for both the city and the state. (Information found on RI Kids Count).** = = =
 * __Race/Ethnicity Data Table__**
 * || Warwick || Rhode Island ||
 * White || 92.7% || 81.4% ||
 * Black/African American || 1.7% || 5.7% ||
 * Asian || 2.3% || 2.9% ||
 * Hispanic || 3.4% || 12.4% ||
 * American Indian or Alaska native || 0.1% || 0.2% ||
 * Children Population/Household Data Table**
 * || Warwick || Rhode Island ||
 * Child population || 18,780 || 247,822 ||
 * Children living in single parent families || 21% || 30% ||
 * children living in families below the federal poverty threshold || 67% || 16.9% ||
 * Teens not in school and not working || 4.9% || 7.3% ||
 * Households with grandparents financially responsible for grandchildren || 4% || 4% ||

=District Summary = = **Many government leaders, teachers, parents and students have turned to objective testing as a measuring stick to determine the level of educational proficiency a school district has compared to other districts. One such test is the New England Assessment Program Testing or NECAP. The NECAP is only administered to grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11 and is a yearly examination that encompasses the subjects of math, reading, writing and science depending on the grade level. The overwhelming majority of the time Warwick and in particular Toll Gate High School’s scores were above average when compared with the rest of the state. As an example, the NECAP scores for the fifth grade in Warwick were as follows: math 69%, reading 83% and writing 66% while the state average was math 67%, reading 73% and writing 59%. To give some perspective to Warwick’s level of proficiency, it may be helpful to look at a high performing district such as Barrington whose scores were math 90%, reading 94% and writing 88% compared with a low performing district such as Central Falls whose scores were math 38%, reading 51% and writing 37%. Warwick’s above average scores drop significantly by the 11th grade at Toll Gate High School. Math drops below the state average of 33% coming in at 31% for Toll Gate. Reading is above the state average (76%) for Toll Gate (83%) while writing for Toll Gate (54%) is marginally above the state average (51%). Barrington’s scores remain consistently high in math (73%), reading (95%), writing 74%) while Central Falls scores remain consistently low for math (8%), reading (44%) and writing (23%). (Information found on Infoworks).** = = **Statistically it is very difficult to determine any one factor that causes Toll Gate to be above the state average in many categorizes on NECAP testing. Some would point to the fact that zero percent of Toll Gate’s teacher’s were not highly qualified compared with the state average of 3%. Expectedly, Barrington is showing that zero percentage of its teachers are not highly qualified while Central Fall comes in with 4% of its teachers not being highly qualified. Others may point to Toll Gate’s student teacher ratio of one teacher from every 10 students as an example of why it beats the state average in many NECAP testing areas. It should be noted that the state teacher student ration is 1:11. But this myth may be shattered when comparing Barrington’s student teacher ratio at 1:12 compared with Central Falls at 1:9. (Information found on Infoworks).** = = **Socio-economic factors are also enlightening when examining school districts and their performance. Despite being in a city, only 31% of Toll Gate’s students are eligible for subsidized lunches while the state average is 43%. In contrast, only 4% of Barrington students are eligible while 43% of Central Falls students were eligible for subsidized lunches. Also, only 1% percent of Toll Gate students receive ESL or Bilingual Educational services compared with the state average of 5%, Barrington at 1% and Central Fall at 5%. Surprisingly, more Toll Gate students receive Special Education Services (19%) than the state average of 16% while Barrington has only 11% and Central Falls has 16%. What is shocking is that while Barrington has some of the highest scores on the NECAP it spends less money at $12,005.18 per pupil than Toll Gate at $15,796.89 and even Central Falls at $14,563.99. I guess that should put to rest the old saying that “you get what you pay for.” (Information found on Infoworks).** = = = =School Analysis = =Any analysis of the Toll Gate School System would be incomplete if we did not give it a look by using a national test such as the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and then compare the school’s scores with those of other schools in Rhode Island. The SAT is used by colleges during the application process and is only taken by students seeking to further their educational experience at the next level. It is not a mandatory test such as the NECAP and students pay to take the examination. By reviewing these scores we can see that Toll Gate is again above the state average of 482 in math, 482 in English and 474 in Writing. Toll Gate’s scores were 492 Math, 489 Reading, and 493 in Writing. In contrast, Barrington’s scores were above the state average with Math being 576, Reading being 554, and writing being 547 while Central Falls was below the state average with Math at 374, Reading at 381 and writing at 376. The same results can be seen by analyzing another college entrance examination the Advanced Placement (AP) Exams with Toll Gate again scoring over the state average. The percentage of students that scored at College-Level was as follows: 60% state average; 77% Toll Gate; 89% Barrington and 21% Central Falls. It is also interesting to note that 45% of Toll Gate Students go on to obtain a bachelor’s degree or higher while the state average is only 31%. These results clearly demonstrate that Toll Gate students are outperforming a majority of their peers and are a good indication of a community hard at work to educate their children. = = = =**Conclusion** = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">Balancing where you should live, work and raise your family can be a very daunting task. If you are looking for a community with easy access to trains, planes and an interstate highway system for work commuting or for travel, is located on the water with many recreational opportunities and which offers an above average educational opportunity then the Toll Gate School System in Warwick is an exceptional option for you. = = = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">References = [|http://factfinder.census.gov] http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/school/toll-gate-high-school

http://www.rikidscount.org http://warwickschools.org/ http://webmail.warwickschools.org/schools/tollgate/index