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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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Indiana Area Shs

450 N. 5TH ST., INDIANA, PA., 15701 | Grades 10-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
725
72
1% 13
District 2,865 269 2% 13
State 1.2M 85,389 11% 10
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
28%

21%

Take at Least One AP Course

16%
15%

15%

AP Pass Rate

62%
50%

50%

Take Advanced Math

19%
26%

26%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

5%
7%

11%

Take Chemistry

21%
25%

25%

Take Physics

11%
15%

15%

Participate in sports

45%
0.0%

93%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
4%
5%

3% Asian
19%
5%

4% Black
10%
1%

1% Hispanic
67%
89%

90% White

Indiana Area SHS, part of the Indiana Area district, is located in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The school reports enrolling 725 students in grades 10 through 12, and it has 72 teachers on staff.

Indiana Area SHS is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 34 percent of students in Pennsylvania qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 21 percent of students at Indiana Area SHS are eligible. At the district level, 28 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.

Indiana Area SHS offers 13 AP courses, and 15 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is the same as the district's, both at 50 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.

Indiana Area SHS's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 25 percent, 15 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 11 percent.

Pocono Mountain West High School, in Pocono Summit, Pa., is a higher-poverty school than Indiana Area SHS, with 51 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 11 AP courses, and 6 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