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Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education?

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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Strayhorn Elementary School

3402 HWY 4 WEST, SARAH, MISS., 38665 | Grades K-6

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
570
31
20%
District 2,985 190 19%
State 338K 22,455 13%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

64%
68%

70%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

10%
5%

7%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
0%

0% Asian
48%
39%

10% Black
3%
3%

4% Hispanic
48%
58%

86% White

Strayhorn Elementary School, part of the Tate County School District, is located in Sarah, Mississippi. The school reports enrolling 570 students in grades kindergarten through six, and it has 31 teachers on staff.

Strayhorn Elementary School is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 64 percent of students in Mississippi qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 70 percent of students at Strayhorn Elementary School do. At the district level, 68 percent of students qualify.

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.

Strayhorn Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 7 percent.

Goodman Pickens Elementary School, in Goodman, Miss., is a higher-poverty school than Strayhorn Elementary School, with 99 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not have a gifted and talented program.

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