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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| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | AP Courses | |
| This School |
1,140
|
59
|
5% | 6 |
| District | 43.9K | 2,569 | 12% | 7 |
| State | 833K | 42,424 | 7% | 8 |
West Seattle High School, in Seattle, Washington, is part of the Seattle Public Schools district. The school reports enrolling 1,140 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 59 teachers on staff.
West Seattle High School is below 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, 38 percent of students in Washington are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 36 percent of West Seattle High School students are eligible. At the district level, 39 percent 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.
West Seattle High School offers six AP courses, and 17 percent of students participate in those classes.
The school's pass rate for AP exams of 78 percent is below the district average of 90 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.
West Seattle High School has an enrollment rate of 13 percent for advanced math classes, and 11 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 5 percent.
Toppenish High School, in Toppenish, Wash., is a higher-poverty school than West Seattle High School, with 84 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers four AP courses, and 10 percent of students are enrolled in those courses.
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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