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.
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Memorial Elementary
1700 S BORDER, WESLACO, TEXAS, 78596 | Grades PreK-5
| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | |
| This School |
990
|
55
|
5% |
| District | 17K | 1,052 | 7% |
| State | 4.01M | 269,017 | 14% |
Memorial Elementary, part of the Weslaco ISD, is located in Weslaco, Texas. The school reports enrolling 990 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, and it has 55 teachers on staff.
There are no students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch at Memorial Elementary. Compare this with the free or reduced-price lunch rates for the state and district, where 48 percent of students in Texas qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and 11 percent of district 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.
Memorial Elementary's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 6 percent.
Lakewood Elementary, in Houston, Texas, is a higher-poverty school than Memorial Elementary, with 100 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 4 percent of students in its gifted and talented program.
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
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