ProPublica

Journalism in the Public Interest

Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education?

This database was last updated in January 2013 and should only be used as a historical snapshot of data from the 2009-10 school year. For more recent data on public and charter schools, check out Miseducation.

ProPublica analyzed federal education data from the 2009-2010 school year to examine whether states provide high-poverty schools equal access to advanced courses and special programs that researchers say will help them later in life. This is the first nationwide picture of exactly which courses are being taken at which schools and districts across the country. More than three-quarters of all public school children are represented. Read our story and our methodology.

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Mariner High School

701 CHIQUITA BLVD N, CAPE CORAL, FLA., 33993 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,470
80
20% 25
District 69.4K 4,388 21% 19
State 2.43M 163,474 19% 13
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
57%

45%

Take at Least One AP Course

37%
31%

36%

AP Pass Rate

44%
38%

40%

Take Advanced Math

30%
30%

21%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

6%
7%

8%

Take Chemistry

16%
17%

15%

Take Physics

5%
4%

2%

Participate in sports

24%
0.0%

35%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
3%
1%

2% Asian
24%
16%

5% Black
27%
32%

30% Hispanic
46%
51%

63% White

Mariner High School, part of the Lee district, is located in Cape Coral, Florida. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,470 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 80 teachers on staff.

Mariner High School is below both the state and district averages in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 50 percent of students in Florida are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 45 percent of Mariner High School students are eligible. At the district level, 57 percent are eligible.

ProPublica's analysis found that all too often, states and schools provide poor students fewer educational programs like Advanced Placement, gifted and talented programs, and advanced math and science classes. Studies have linked participation in these programs with better outcomes later in life. Our analysis uses free and reduced-price lunch to estimate poverty at schools. We based our findings on the most comprehensive data set of access to advanced classes and special programs in U.S. public schools — known as the Civil Rights Data Set— released by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.

Mariner High School offers 25 AP courses, and 36 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is above the district average, with 40 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 38 percent.

A school's AP pass rate is determined by the number of students who both sat for AP exams and passed some or all of those exams.

Mariner High School has an enrollment rate of 21 percent for math classes, and 15 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 2 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 8 percent.

Glades Central High School, in Belle Glade, Fla., is a higher-poverty school than Mariner High School, with 89 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 27 AP courses, and 48 percent of students are enrolled in those courses.

These data points were reported by schools and districts to the Office for Civil Rights. For more information about the data, see our full methodology.

— Generated by Narrative Science