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The Opportunity Gap

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.

From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.

Find a school

Columbus

370 WESTERVELT PLACE, LODI, N.J., 07644 | Grades K-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
285
20
12%
District 3,210 256 12%
State 880K 72,554 11%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

35%
47%

42%
State Avg: 35% District Avg: 47%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
5%

0%
State Avg: 12% District Avg: 5%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
State Avg: 0% District Avg: 0%
10%
8%

5% Asian
State Avg: 10% District Avg: 8%
19%
9%

11% Black
State Avg: 19% District Avg: 9%
24%
43%

40% Hispanic
State Avg: 24% District Avg: 43%
46%
36%

40% White
State Avg: 46% District Avg: 36%

Columbus, part of the Lodi district, is located in Lodi, New Jersey. The school reports enrolling 285 students in grades kindergarten through five, and it has 20 teachers on staff.

Columbus is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 35 percent of students in New Jersey qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 42 percent of Columbus students do. At the district level, 47 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.

Sara M Gilmore, in Union City, N.J., is a higher-poverty school than Columbus, with 93 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

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