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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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Golden Gate High School

2925 TITAN WAY, NAPLES, FLA., 34116 | Grades NOT CONTINUOUS

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,205
74
20% 23
District 41.3K 2,776 19% 20
State 2.43M 163,474 19% 13
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
51%

65%

Take at Least One AP Course

37%
42%

42%

AP Pass Rate

44%
51%

24%

Take Advanced Math

30%
30%

21%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

6%
6%

4%

Take Chemistry

16%
14%

17%

Take Physics

5%
5%

4%

Participate in sports

24%
0.0%

50%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
1%

1% Asian
24%
12%

29% Black
27%
44%

52% Hispanic
46%
42%

17% White

Golden Gate High School, in Naples, Florida, is part of the Collier district. The school reports enrolling 1,205 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12, and it has 74 teachers on staff.

Golden Gate High School is above 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, 50 percent of students in Florida are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 65 percent of Golden Gate High School students are eligible. At the district level, 51 percent of students 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.

Golden Gate High School has an enrollment rate of 21 percent for math classes, and 17 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 4 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 4 percent.

Viera High School is a lower-poverty school than Golden Gate High School, with 7 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 9 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Viera, Fla.

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