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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Wakefield High

4901 SOUTH CHESTERFIELD RD, ARLINGTON, VA., 22206 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,605
131
2% 27
District 20.3K 1,794 6% 27
State 1.13M 81,901 9% 14
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

32%
32%

41%

Take at Least One AP Course

20%
36%

26%

AP Pass Rate

58%
60%

61%

Take Advanced Math

17%
24%

16%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
15%

20%

Take Chemistry

17%
20%

17%

Take Physics

9%
21%

21%

Participate in sports

42%
0.0%

23%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
7%
11%

11% Asian
26%
13%

27% Black
10%
27%

46% Hispanic
57%
48%

15% White

Wakefield High, part of the Arlington County Public Schools district, is located in Arlington, Virginia. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,605 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 131 teachers on staff.

Wakefield High is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 32 percent of students in Virginia qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 41 percent of students at Wakefield High do. At the district level, 32 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.

Wakefield High offers 27 AP courses, and 26 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is 61 percent. This is higher than the district average of 60 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.

Wakefield High has an enrollment rate of 16 percent for math classes, and 17 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 21 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 20 percent.

Langley High, in Mclean, Virginia, is a lower-poverty school than Wakefield High, with 1 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 24 AP courses, and 44 percent of students are enrolled in those classs.

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