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.
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Sterling High School
1608 4TH AVE, STERLING, ILL., 61081 | Grades 9-12
| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | AP Courses | |
| This School |
985
|
61
|
15% | 11 |
| District | 3,565 | 222 | 15% | 11 |
| State | 1.36M | 84,195 | 14% | 11 |
Sterling High School, in Sterling, Illinois, is part of the Sterling CUSD 5. The school reports enrolling 985 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 61 teachers on staff.
Sterling High 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 37 percent of students at Sterling High School are eligible. At the district level, 44 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.
Sterling High School offers 11 AP courses, and 15 percent of students participate in those classes.
The school's pass rate for AP exams is the same as the district's, both at 52 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.
Sterling High School has an enrollment rate of 10 percent for advanced math classes, and 18 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 4 percent.
Chicago Vocational Career Acad High School, in Chicago, Ill., is a higher-poverty school than Sterling High School, with 100 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers two AP courses, and 3 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
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