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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

Kent Island High School

900 LOVE POINT RD, STEVENSVILLE, MD., 21666 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,245
76
13% 10
District 7,765 503 8% 10
State 826K 56,262 11% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
17%

8%
State Avg: 34% District Avg: 17%

Take at Least One AP Course

23%
19%

20%
State Avg: 23% District Avg: 19%

Take Advanced Math

17%
10%

10%
State Avg: 17% District Avg: 10%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

25%
10%

6%
State Avg: 25% District Avg: 10%

Take Chemistry

20%
12%

10%
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 12%

Take Physics

12%
5%

4%
State Avg: 12% District Avg: 5%

Participate in sports

38%
0.0%

56%
State Avg: 38% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
State Avg: 0% District Avg: 0%
6%
1%

2% Asian
State Avg: 6% District Avg: 1%
37%
7%

5% Black
State Avg: 37% District Avg: 7%
10%
3%

2% Hispanic
State Avg: 10% District Avg: 3%
45%
85%

92% White
State Avg: 45% District Avg: 85%

Kent Island High School, in Stevensville, Maryland, is part of the Queen Anne's County Public Schools district. The school reports enrolling 1,245 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 76 teachers on staff.

Kent Island 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, 34 percent of students in Maryland are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 8 percent of Kent Island High School students are eligible. At the district level, 17 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.

Kent Island High School offers 10 AP courses, and 20 percent of students participate in those classes.

Kent Island High School has an enrollment rate of 10 percent for math classes, and 10 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 4 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 6 percent.

Vivien T Thomas Medical Arts Academy, in Baltimore, Md., is a higher-poverty school than Kent Island High School, with 81 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers two AP courses, and 6 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