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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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Andover Central High School

603 E. CENTRAL, ANDOVER, KAN., 67002 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
745
50
12% 7
District 4,860 331 9% 7
State 279K 19,236 10% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

45%
12%

10%

Take at Least One AP Course

15%
12%

16%

AP Pass Rate

64%
68%

75%

Take Advanced Math

14%
29%

33%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

4%
5%

7%

Take Chemistry

16%
24%

25%

Take Physics

7%
15%

13%

Participate in sports

45%
0.0%

79%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
4%
5%

2% Asian
12%
2%

2% Black
20%
6%

5% Hispanic
60%
86%

89% White

Andover Central High School, in Andover, Kansas, is part of the Andover Public Schools district. The school reports enrolling 745 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 50 teachers on staff.

Andover Central 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, 45 percent of students in Kansas are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 10 percent of Andover Central High School students are eligible. At the district level, 12 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.

Andover Central High School offers seven AP courses, and 16 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 75 percent is higher than the district average of 68 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.

Andover Central High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 25 percent, 13 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 7 percent.

Wyandotte High, in Kansas City, Kan., is a higher-poverty school than Andover Central High School, with 92 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