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Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education?

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

Ferson Creek School

38W160 BOLCUM RD, ST CHARLES, ILL., 60175 | Grades PreK-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
630
29
7%
District 13.8K 743 14%
State 1.36M 84,195 14%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

44%
7%

1%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
2%

2%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
5%
5%

4% Asian
24%
1%

2% Black
27%
7%

2% Hispanic
43%
83%

88% White

Ferson Creek School, part of the St Charles CUSD 303, is located in St Charles, Illinois. The school reports enrolling 630 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, and it has 29 teachers on staff.

Ferson Creek School is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 44 percent of students in Illinois qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 1 percent of students at Ferson Creek School are eligible. At the district level, 7 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.

Ferson Creek School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 2 percent.

Williams Multiplex Elementary School, in Chicago, Ill., is a higher-poverty school than Ferson Creek School, with 99 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not have a 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