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.
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South High Community
170 APRICOT STREET, WORCESTER, MASS., 01603 | Grades 9-12
| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | AP Courses | |
| This School |
1,345
|
109
|
13% | 14 |
| District | 24.1K | 1,747 | 13% | 10 |
| State | 645K | 46,071 | 12% | 10 |
South High Community, part of the Worcester district, is located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The school reports enrolling 1,345 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 109 teachers on staff.
South High Community is above 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, 35 percent of students in Massachusetts are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 73 percent of South High Community students are eligible. At the district level, 66 percent of students 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.
South High Community offers 14 AP courses, and 28 percent of students participate in those classes.
For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 26 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 30 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.
South High Community's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 12 percent, 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 9 percent.
Medfield Senior High, in Medfield, Massachusetts, is a lower-poverty school than South High Community, with 1 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 12 AP courses, and 34 percent of students are enrolled in those classs.
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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