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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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Southaven High School

735 RASCO ROAD W, SOUTHAVEN, MISS., 38671 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,660
94
19% 7
District 31.7K 1,883 16% 6
State 338K 22,455 13% 6
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

64%
44%

42%

Take at Least One AP Course

10%
7%

6%

AP Pass Rate

31%
30%

30%

Take Advanced Math

11%
6%

5%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

10%
12%

11%

Take Chemistry

13%
11%

7%

Take Physics

2%
2%

3%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
1%

2% Asian
48%
31%

38% Black
3%
6%

5% Hispanic
48%
62%

55% White

Southaven High School, part of the Desoto County School District, is located in Southaven, Mississippi. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,660 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 94 teachers on staff.

Southaven 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, 64 percent of students in Mississippi qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 42 percent of students at Southaven 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.

Southaven High School offers seven AP courses, and 6 percent of students participate in those classes.

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

Southaven High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 7 percent, 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 11 percent.

Canton Elementary School, in Canton, Miss., is a higher-poverty school than Southaven High School, with 99 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