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.
From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.
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Graham High
210 VALLEYDALE, BLUEFIELD, VA., 24605 | Grades 9-12
| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | AP Courses | |
| This School |
540
|
40
|
5% | 10 |
| District | 6,840 | 482 | 7% | 8 |
| State | 1.13M | 81,901 | 9% | 14 |
Graham High, in Bluefield, Virginia, is part of the Tazewell County Public Schools district. The school reports enrolling 540 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 40 teachers on staff.
Graham High is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 32 percent of students in Virginia are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 34 percent of Graham High students do. At the district level, 48 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.
Graham High offers 10 AP courses, and 15 percent of students participate in those classes.
For AP tests, the school's pass rate is above the district average, with 75 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 67 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.
Graham High has an enrollment rate of 9 percent for math classes, and 12 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 2 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 7 percent.
Langley High, in Mclean, Virginia, is a lower-poverty school than Graham High, with 1 percent of its students eligible 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
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