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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Harrison High School

255 UNION AVE, HARRISON, N.Y., 10528 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,005
92
27% 20
District 3,515 346 18% 20
State 2.07M 171,244 14% 7
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

49%
7%

8%

Take at Least One AP Course

16%
45%

45%

AP Pass Rate

61%
56%

56%

Take Advanced Math

16%
50%

50%

Take Chemistry

17%
25%

25%

Take Physics

9%
16%

16%

Participate in sports

44%
0.0%

74%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
10%
10%

6% Asian
22%
1%

1% Black
26%
14%

16% Hispanic
42%
75%

77% White

Harrison High School, part of the Harrison Central School District, is located in Harrison, New York. The school reports enrolling 1,005 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 92 teachers on staff.

Harrison High School is below the state average but above the district average for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 49 percent of students in New York qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 8 percent of Harrison High School students qualify. At the district level, 7 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.

Harrison High School offers 20 AP courses, and 45 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is the same as the district's, both at 56 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.

Harrison High School has an enrollment rate of 50 percent for advanced math classes, and 25 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 16 percent.

High School For Teaching And The Professions, in Bronx, N.Y., is a higher-poverty school than Harrison High School, with 99 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers four AP courses, and 11 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