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.

Find a school

Tracy High

315 E. 11TH ST., TRACY, CALIF., 95376 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,310
109
9% N/A
District 16.1K 750 6% 8
State 5.34M 237,404 6% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

53%
37%

22%

Take Advanced Math

12%
12%

14%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

10%
5%

5%

Take Chemistry

16%
23%

25%

Take Physics

7%
8%

6%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

34%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
12%
15%

15% Asian
7%
7%

6% Black
52%
45%

33% Hispanic
26%
28%

44% White

Tracy High, part of the Tracy Joint Unified district, is located in Tracy, California. The school reports an enrollment number of 2,310 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 109 teachers on staff.

Tracy High 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, 53 percent of students in California are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 22 percent of Tracy High students are eligible. At the district level, 37 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.

Tracy High hasn't reported or may not offer AP courses.

Tracy High's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 25 percent, 6 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 5 percent.

Sequoia High School, in Merced, Calif., is a higher-poverty school than Tracy High, with 100 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer AP classes.

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