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The Opportunity Gap

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.

From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.

Find a school

Meridian Elementary School

48 WEST STATE AVENUE, MERIDIAN, IDAHO, 83642 | Grades PreK-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
470
24
18%
District 33.3K 1,602 10%
State 190K 9,491 10%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

39%
23%

55%
State Avg: 39% District Avg: 23%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

5%
4%

1%
State Avg: 5% District Avg: 4%

Are

1%
1%

0% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 1%
2%
2%

0% Asian
State Avg: 2% District Avg: 2%
1%
1%

1% Black
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 1%
15%
9%

14% Hispanic
State Avg: 15% District Avg: 9%
79%
83%

82% White
State Avg: 79% District Avg: 83%

Meridian Elementary School, part of the Meridian Joint District, is located in Meridian, Idaho. The school reports an enrollment number of 470 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, and it has 24 teachers on staff.

Meridian Elementary School is above 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, 39 percent of students in Idaho are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 55 percent of Meridian Elementary School students are eligible. At the district level, 23 percent of students 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.

Meridian Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 1 percent.

Mary Mc Pherson Elementary School, also in Meridian, Idaho, is a lower-poverty school than Meridian Elementary School, with 17 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 2 percent of students in its gifted and talented program.

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