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.

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Concord High School

2501 EBRIGHT ROAD, WILMINGTON, DEL., 19810 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,280
81
5% 27
District 10.2K 716 6% 21
State 107K 7,041 10% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

40%
34%

23%

Take at Least One AP Course

19%
19%

23%

AP Pass Rate

39%
53%

55%

Take Advanced Math

13%
19%

20%

Take Chemistry

18%
24%

23%

Take Physics

7%
12%

18%

Participate in sports

48%
0.0%

64%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
5%

5% Asian
33%
38%

31% Black
12%
4%

1% Hispanic
51%
52%

62% White

Concord High School, part of the Brandywine School District, is located in Wilmington, Delaware. The school reports enrolling 1,280 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 81 teachers on staff.

Concord High School is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 40 percent of students in Delaware qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 23 percent of students at Concord High School are eligible. At the district level, 34 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.

Concord High School offers 27 AP courses, and 23 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is above the district average, with 55 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 53 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.

Concord High School enrolls 20 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 23 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 18 percent.

Thomas McKean High School, also in Wilmington, Del., is a higher-poverty school than Concord High School, with 53 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 18 AP courses, and 16 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