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

Ponce De Leon High School

1477 AMMONS RD, PONCE DE LEON, FLA., 32455 | Grades 6-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
380
25
12% N/A
District 3,305 235 17% 1
State 2.43M 163,474 19% 13
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
59%

58%

Take Advanced Math

30%
11%

8%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

6%
0%

0%

Take Chemistry

16%
4%

4%

Take Physics

5%
1%

0%

Participate in sports

24%
0.0%

15%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
1%

0% Asian
24%
2%

0% Black
27%
2%

0% Hispanic
46%
95%

99% White

Ponce De Leon High School, in Ponce De Leon, Florida, is part of the Holmes district. The school reports enrolling 380 students in grades six through 12, and it has 25 teachers on staff.

Ponce De Leon High School is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 50 percent of students in Florida are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 58 percent of Ponce De Leon High School students do. At the district level, 59 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.

Ponce De Leon High School has enrollment rates of 4 percent and 8 in chemistry and math classes, respectively.

Joshua Creek Center, in Arcadia, Fla., is a lower-poverty school than Ponce De Leon High School, with 1 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

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