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Journalism in the Public Interest

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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Northville High School

45700 6 MILE ROAD, NORTHVILLE, MICH., 48168 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,185
110
11% 19
District 7,085 317 12% 19
State 949K 49,657 5% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

38%
3%

3%

Take at Least One AP Course

17%
29%

29%

AP Pass Rate

59%
93%

93%

Take Advanced Math

14%
10%

10%

Take Chemistry

22%
25%

25%

Take Physics

11%
11%

11%

Participate in sports

48%
0.0%

58%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
14%

11% Asian
22%
3%

3% Black
5%
2%

2% Hispanic
68%
82%

84% White

Northville High School, part of the Northville Public Schools district, is located in Northville, Michigan. The school reports an enrollment number of 2,185 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 110 teachers on staff.

Northville High School is below the state average and on par with the district average for the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 38 percent of students in Michigan are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 3 percent of Northville High School students are eligible. At the district level, 3 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.

Northville High School offers 19 AP courses, and 29 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams matches the district's, each of which is 93 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.

Northville High School has an enrollment rate of 10 percent for advanced math classes, and 25 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 11 percent.

Central High School, in Grand Rapids, Mich., is a higher-poverty school than Northville High School, with 89 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers one AP course, and 10 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