Consider two Rhode Island communities. In one, just 3 percent of the students in the public schools are racial minorities — classified as anything other than “white.” In the other, 19 percent of the students are something other than white — basically, one of every five students is a minority.

Which is Barrington?

Both.

The former is Barrington just 20 years ago. The latter is Barrington today.

The data is tracked by the Rhode Island Department of Education, recorded and shared annually with the public. What it shows is significant expansion of the minority population in the Barrington schools, and by extension, in the town itself.

In the 2000-01 school year, Barrington began the year with 99 students classified as a racial minority; that was 3.1 percent of the district’s 3,241 students. There were 71 reported as “Asian-Pacific” (this includes areas of the world like China, Japan, India and Pakistan). There were 15 classified as “Black.” And there were 13 classified as “Hispanic.”

Twenty years later, at the start of this Covid-altered school year, there were 630 minority students in Barrington — 246 classified as Asian-Pacific (a 246% increase); 51 classified as Black (a 240% increase); and 154 classified as Hispanic (an increase of nearly 11 times what it was 20 years ago).

In addition, the state added a new classification about 15 years ago, and families can now choose “Mixed Race” when registering their children in the public schools (all of this data is self-reported upon enrollment). Today there are at least 179 mixed-race students in Barrington.

The explosive diversification of the school district’s student population has brought some challenges. A decade ago, the district had 21 students considered “Limited English Proficient” — another statistic tracked by the state annually. At the start of this school year, that population had grown 300 percent; Barrington had 64 students considered Limited English Proficient.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Paula Dillon said they currently have 22 different languages identified as the predominant language in the home. In all those cases, the district provides interventions to ease the students through their transition into the schools and into the language.

Of course, the diversity brings unmeasured benefits to a community largely perceived as white and elitist. The students are developing friendships, working on projects, performing in musicals and competing on teams with peers with different skin colors, accents, cultural influences and family histories.

The schools reflect the community

The reality in the schools is also a direct reflection of the reality in the community. More than any district in the state of Rhode Island, the Barrington school population is a close representation of the wider population in the town. Dave Burrows, director of technology for the Barrington School Department, has been in charge of the data tracking in this district for more than a decade. At one time, he did an analysis of the student population within the larger community population. He wanted to know how many of the town’s residents were school-age students.

His research proved what he suspected: “Barrington has the highest percentage of its population enrolled in the schools — by far the highest,” Mr. Burrows said. “About 20 to 25 percent of the town’s population walks into a school every day.”

One thing that has not changed dramatically is the socio-economic profile of the town — it’s still a very wealthy community. If anything, it has become even more wealthy.

In the language of school demographics, that is measured by the number of students enrolled in the Free and Reduced Lunch program. Five years ago, the district had 196 students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program — about 6 percent. This year, it has 151 students — about 4 percent.

So what’s the trend in the Barrington schools, and by extension, all of Barrington? The community has been getting much more racially diverse, perhaps less socio-economically diverse, for at least a decade.

% of Non-White Students Per District
— 2020-21 school year

Twenty years ago, Barrington had one of the least diverse school populations in Rhode Island (23rd in the state), with many suburban districts showing much more diverse student bodies. This school year, Barrington is more diverse than a majority of Rhode Island school districts (17th in the state). In the course of two decades, it has surpassed suburban districts like North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Portsmouth, Coventry and Narragansett.