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

San Diego Early/Middle College

1425 RUSS BLVD., STE. T112-D, SAN DIEGO, CALIF., 92101 | Grades 9-11

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
90
6
33% 1
District 120K 5,588 6% 9
State 5.34M 237,404 6% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

53%
64%

84%

Take at Least One AP Course

19%
23%

39%

AP Pass Rate

59%
49%

0%

Take Advanced Math

12%
17%

0%

Take Chemistry

16%
21%

11%

Take Physics

7%
14%

0%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
12%
15%

11% Asian
7%
11%

17% Black
52%
46%

67% Hispanic
26%
23%

6% White

San Diego Early/Middle College, part of the San Diego Unified district, is located in San Diego, California. The school reports an enrollment number of 90 students in grades nine through 11, and it has six teachers on staff.

San Diego Early/Middle College is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 53 percent of students in California qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 84 percent of students at San Diego Early/Middle College do. At the district level, 64 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.

San Diego Early/Middle College offers one AP course, and 39 percent of students participate in that class.

San Diego Early/Middle College's enrollment rate for chemistry classes is 11 percent.

Clovis North High, in Fresno, California, is a lower-poverty school than San Diego Early/Middle College, with 14 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 17 AP courses, and 21 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