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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.

Find a school

Hurst Junior High

500 HARMON RD, HURST, TEXAS, 76053 | Grades 7-9

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
950
58
12% 1
District 20.5K 1,270 8% 16
State 4.01M 269,017 14% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

48%
46%

53%

Take at Least One AP Course

20%
14%

2%

Take Advanced Math

10%
18%

0%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
7%

9%

Take Chemistry

26%
22%

0%

Take Physics

14%
7%

0%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

56%

Are

0%
1%

2% Am Indian
4%
8%

6% Asian
15%
15%

16% Black
50%
26%

33% Hispanic
29%
47%

42% White

Hurst Junior High, part of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, is located in Hurst, Texas. The school reports enrolling 950 students in grades seven through nine, and it has 58 teachers on staff.

Hurst Junior High is above both the state and district averages in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 48 percent of students in Texas are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 53 percent of Hurst Junior High 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.

Hurst Junior High's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 9 percent.

Bedford Junior High is a lower-poverty school than Hurst Junior High, with 23 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 11 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Bedford, Texas.

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