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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

Williams Middle School

155-A BARREN FORK, HUNTSVILLE, ALA., 35824 | Grades 6-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
270
22
0%
District 22.9K 1,531 8%
State 611K 39,097 9%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

9%
16%

19%
State Avg: 9% District Avg: 16%

Are

1%
0%

2% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 0%
1%
3%

4% Asian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 3%
34%
43%

57% Black
State Avg: 34% District Avg: 43%
4%
6%

6% Hispanic
State Avg: 4% District Avg: 6%
59%
48%

33% White
State Avg: 59% District Avg: 48%

Williams Middle School, in Huntsville, Alabama, is part of the Huntsville City district. The school reports enrolling 270 students in grades six through eight, and it has 22 teachers on staff.

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.

Williams Middle School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 19 percent.

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