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The Opportunity Gap

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.

From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.

Find a school

Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts

8990 YORK STREET, THORNTON, COLO., 80299 | Grades 7-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
520
32
19% N/A
District 5,765 330 18% 0
State 669K 37,345 13% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

35%
65%

58%
State Avg: 35% District Avg: 65%

Take Advanced Math

19%
0%

0%
State Avg: 19% District Avg: 0%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
3%

1%
State Avg: 8% District Avg: 3%

Take Chemistry

18%
17%

19%
State Avg: 18% District Avg: 17%

Take Physics

8%
12%

0%
State Avg: 8% District Avg: 12%

Participate in sports

48%
0.0%

4%
State Avg: 48% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

1%
1%

2% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 1%
4%
2%

3% Asian
State Avg: 4% District Avg: 2%
6%
1%

3% Black
State Avg: 6% District Avg: 1%
29%
63%

54% Hispanic
State Avg: 29% District Avg: 63%
60%
32%

38% White
State Avg: 60% District Avg: 32%

Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts, in Thornton, Colorado, is part of the Mapleton School District. The school reports enrolling 520 students in grades seven through 12, and it has 32 teachers on staff.

Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 35 percent of students in Colorado qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 58 percent of Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts students do. At the district level, 65 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.

Beauregard High School has an enrollment rate of 19 percent for chemistry classes, and 1 percent of students are in the gifted and talented program.

D'evelyn Junior/Senior High School is a lower-poverty school than Mapleton Expeditionary School Of The Arts, with 4 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 26 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Denver, Colo.

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