ProPublica

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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Sumrall High School

198 CENTER AVENUE, SUMRALL, MISS., 39482 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
475
42
7% 6
District 8,090 560 7% 7
State 338K 22,455 13% 6
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

64%
46%

49%

Take at Least One AP Course

10%
17%

5%

AP Pass Rate

31%
40%

11%

Take Advanced Math

11%
9%

16%

Take Chemistry

13%
24%

16%

Take Physics

2%
4%

2%

Participate in sports

30%
0.0%

34%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
1%

0% Asian
48%
23%

12% Black
3%
3%

1% Hispanic
48%
72%

88% White

Sumrall High School, part of the Lamar County School District, is located in Sumrall, Mississippi. The school reports an enrollment number of 475 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 42 teachers on staff.

Sumrall High School is below the state average but above the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 64 percent of students in Mississippi are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 49 percent of Sumrall High School students are eligible. At the district level, 46 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.

Sumrall High School offers six AP courses, and 5 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 11 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 40 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.

Sumrall High School has an enrollment rate of 16 percent for advanced math classes, and 16 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 2 percent.

Canton Elementary School, in Canton, Miss., is a higher-poverty school than Sumrall 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