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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Northbrook High School

1 RAIDER CIR, HOUSTON, TEXAS, 77080 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,910
169
8% 15
District 31.4K 2,840 9% 25
State 4.01M 269,017 14% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

48%
54%

79%

Take at Least One AP Course

20%
41%

23%

AP Pass Rate

48%
74%

4%

Take Advanced Math

10%
9%

9%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
6%

2%

Take Chemistry

26%
18%

23%

Take Physics

14%
13%

11%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

29%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
4%
7%

2% Asian
15%
6%

5% Black
50%
57%

88% Hispanic
29%
30%

5% White

Northbrook High School, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Spring Branch ISD. The school reports enrolling 1,910 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 169 teachers on staff.

Northbrook High School is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 48 percent of students in Texas qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 79 percent of students at Northbrook High School do. At the district level, 54 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.

Northbrook High School offers 15 AP courses, and 23 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 4 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 74 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.

Northbrook High School has an enrollment rate of 9 percent for math classes, and 23 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 11 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 2 percent.

Highland Park High School, a lower-poverty school than Northbrook High School, does not have any students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 56 percent of its students in AP classes. It is located in Dallas, 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