Mount+Pleasant+High+School+Fall+2015

Mount Pleasant High School 434 Mount Pleasant Ave, Providence, RI (401) 456-9183




 * Introduction **

Mount Pleasant High School is located in the northwestern corner of Providence, Rhode Island's biggest city. This report is intended to inform the audience on the the economic, demographic, and academic factors that affect the quality of Mount Pleasant High School. The audience of this context statement is anyone who wants to know how Mount Pleasant High School stacks up in comparison to other Rhode Island schools. Throughout the report we drew comparisons between Mount Pleasant's overall success, or lack there of, to other schools. This presentation compares not just Mount Pleasant, but Providence in general, to other districts and schools in Rhode Island. Central Falls is used throughout the presentation to represent a poor and low achieving school, and Barrington represents a wealthy high achieving school.

(US Census, 2013) (US Census 2010)
 * Community Background **
 * || Providence || Rhode Island || United States ||
 * Median Household Income || 37,632 || 56,361 || 53,046 ||
 * Median Family Income || 43,674 || 72,717 || 64,719 ||
 * Per Capita Income || 21,676 || 30,469 || 28,155 ||
 * All Families Below Poverty Level || 24.6% || 9.6% || 11.3% ||
 * All People Below Poverty Level || 29% || 13.6% || 15.4% ||
 * || Providence || Rhode Island || United States ||
 * White || 49.8% || 81.4% || 74% ||
 * Black/African American || 16% || 5.7% || 12.6% ||
 * Asian || 6.4% || 3.1% || 4.9% ||
 * Hispanic/Latino || 38.1% || 12.4% || 16.6% ||
 * American Indian/Alaska Native || 0.3% || 0.4% || 0.8% ||

Providence is home to many residents who live in poverty. 29% of the city is in poverty, nearly twice the percentage of the United States' and more than twice that of Rhode Island. The household, family, and per capita incomes of Providence residents are also lower than state average. Providence's median family income is roughly two thirds of what the state average is. The average Providence family rakes in almost $30,000 less than the average Rhode Island family. When dividing the amount of money that everyone in Providence makes combined by the number of Providence residents, the Per Capita Income for the city is nearly $22,000, which again is much lower than both the state's and country's average. Also nearly one fourth of the city's families live in poverty, which has a negative effect on both the at-home life and the school lives of Providence students. Demographically, Providence is much different than the rest of Rhode Island. One way that Providence does not differ is their low population of Native Americans, which is low for both America and Rhode Island as well. Only 6.4% of Providence is Asian, but this is more than twice as high as the state's 2.9% average. Rhode Island's population of whites is at 81.4%, slightly higher than the country average. only 48.9% of people in Providence are white, however. Providence's black population is 16%, around the U.S. average but much higher than Rhode Island's 5.7%. Providence is home to a high number of Hispanic/Latino residents, as almost two out of every five residents was classified as Hispanic or Latino.


 * District**

__NECAP proficiency__ (Infoworks 2013-2014) __Attendance__ (Infoworks 2013-2014)
 * || District || State ||
 * 11th Grade Math || 14% || 35% ||
 * 11th Grade Reading || 61% || 81% ||
 * 11th Grade Writing || 48% || 66% ||
 * 11th Grade Science || 10% || 30% ||
 * || District || State ||
 * Elementary School Attendance || 93% || 95% ||
 * Middle School Attendance || 92% || 94% ||
 * High School Attendance || 87% || 92% ||
 * Elementary School Chronic Absenteeism || 23% || 13% ||
 * Middle School Chronic Absenteeism || 27% || 15% ||
 * High School Chronic Absenteeism || 42% || 24% ||

The Providence District is home to more than 20 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and 10 high schools. Providence has more schools in it's district than any other district in the state, with the next closest being Cranston and Warwick with 23 each. With the urban atmosphere that Providence provides, many students are short on money. Eighty percent of students in Providence are eligible for reduced lunch, one percent higher than that of Central Falls, and 20 times that of Barrington, where like many schools, the attendance rate become much lower as the kids in the district get older. 22% of elementary students are chronically absent. This rate rises to 27% in middle school, and 42% in high school. Each rate for chronic absenteeism is at least 10% higher than the state and the difference between state and district average increases as the students get older. This applies not just for chronic absenteeism but attendance ovevrall. The largest gap between the state and the district comes at the High School level in which there is a difference of 5%. NECAP proficiency is few and far between among all grades. According to Infoworks, Providence scored below the state average at every grade level on the 2013-2014 NECAPs. Only one in every 10 Providence students were proficient in 11th grade science. Sixty-one percent of Providence 11th graders were proficient in Reading, but even this was 20 percent lower than the state average. The city's Math scores were woeful as well, with 86% of the class scoring lower than proficient. Providence's high population of Hispanics are a big factor in the district's high amount of students receiving Bilingual Education Services. 22% of the students in the district receive ESL, more than three times the state's rate.


 * School**



__SAT Exams and NECAP proficiency__
 * || State || Mount Pleasant || Barrington HS || Central Falls ||
 * Math || 484 || 353 || 588 || 425 ||
 * Reading || 483 || 340 || 578 || 394 ||
 * Writing || 471 || 328 || 566 || 404 ||


 * || State || Mount Pleasant || Central Falls || Barrington ||
 * 11th Grade Math || 35% || 5% || 12% || 79% ||
 * 11th Grade Reading || 81% || 38% || 53% || 97% ||
 * 11th Grade Writing || 66% || 22% || 35% || 81% ||
 * 11th Grade Science || 30% || 1% || 14% || 68% ||

(Infoworks 2013-2014)

In comparison to Central Falls, one of the worst schools in the whole state, Mount Pleasant students, on average, scored lower than Central Falls students on all three sections of the SAT Exam. Although Central Falls scored lower than the state average, it still was not as bad as Mount Pleasant. While Barrington students averaged in the high 500's, Mount Pleasant students were in the mid to low 300's. While money is not the only answer to this trend, it is an important factor, as Barrington is far more wealthy than Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant's lack of wealth shows at their high rate of students eligible for reduced prices for lunch. Three-fourths of the school was eligible, as the state had a rate of less than 50%. NECAP Assessments were fairly disasterous, as well. Five percent of Mount Pleasant 11th graders were proficient in Math, and only 1 percent for science. Reading and writing were the school's strongest areas of the NECAP, at 38 and 22 percent respectively, far below the state average of 81 and 66 percent. These scores were far below even lowly Central Falls, and were barely even comparable to Barrington. The school's dropout rate was absurdly high, too, at 22.3%, nearly three times the state average. Chronic absenteeism also plagued the school, as 39 percent of the students here were chronically absent, but this rate is not as high as the district overall. One aspect of Mount Pleasant that was better than average was their low suspension rate. 19.2 out of 100 students were suspended, which was about half of the state average. (Infoworks) This statistic could be due to a lack of attendance or a lack of teacher discipline, but at least it is something Mount Pleasant can feel good about.


 * Conclusion**

As the data from Mount Pleasant's NECAP and SAT scores shows, the school is not exactly the best in the state. A lot of this has to do with the poverty level of the area, which is much higher than most of the rest of the state. With 80 percent of the district qualifying for reduced lunch, it is very evident that Providence does not have the same resources as Barrington, a town in which only four percent qualifies. It is important to realize that Mount Pleasant's lack of academic success could very well be tied to their lack of economic well-being.


 * References**

Votta, P. (2013). Info works! Rhode Island Education Data Reporting. Retrieved from []

United States Census Bureau. (2010). Retrieved from []

