Community Corner
Here's How Mary M. Knight School District Ranks: 24/7 Wall Street
Every child is born to a unique set of circumstances. And it is these different social, familial, economic, environmental, and many othe ...
2021-07-24
Every child is born to a unique set of circumstances. And it is these different social, familial, economic, environmental, and many other factors, that help shape who they become. While these conditions are countless, a handful of factors play an outsized role in a child’s development and likelihood for future success — including academic success.
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Whether or not a child succeeds academically can depend considerably on school quality. A student who falls behind in one school district might have excelled academically in another. By no means limited to the classroom, many of the strongest influences on a child’s future are in the home environment, and the resources available or absent there.
The Mary M. Knight School District enrolls some 1,700 students in Mason County in western Washington. The district ranks as the worst in the state partially because of its large class sizes. There are an average of 39 students for every teacher in the district, more than double the 18-to-1 statewide student-teacher ratio.
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Outside the classroom, a relatively large share of local students are disadvantaged by financial hardship — which can negatively impact academic performance. An estimated 25.2% of children in the area live below the poverty line, more than double the child poverty rate of 11.2% across Washington.
The four measures used to determine the worst school district in every state are: the child poverty rate, the teacher-to-student ratio, per-pupil spending, and the share of adults with a college education. All data came from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. This is the worst school district in every state.
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This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.
