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.

Find a school

Meridian High School

1900 WEST PINE SCHOOL, MERIDIAN, IDAHO, 83642 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,480
75
8% 10
District 33.3K 1,602 10% 11
State 190K 9,491 10% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

39%
23%

23%

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
16%

11%

AP Pass Rate

54%
43%

29%

Take Advanced Math

12%
14%

11%

Take Chemistry

11%
11%

9%

Take Physics

3%
3%

2%

Participate in sports

42%
0.0%

42%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
2%
2%

1% Asian
1%
1%

2% Black
15%
9%

12% Hispanic
79%
83%

80% White

Meridian High School, in Meridian, Idaho, is part of the Meridian Joint District. The school reports enrolling 1,480 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 75 teachers on staff.

Meridian High School is below the state average and in line with the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 39 percent of students in Idaho qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 23 percent of Meridian High School students do. At the district level, 23 percent qualify.

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 High School offers 10 AP courses, and 11 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 29 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 43 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.

Meridian High School enrolls 11 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 9 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 2 percent.

Vallivue Academy, in Caldwell, Idaho, is a higher-poverty school than Meridian High School, with 82 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer AP classes.

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