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

Fort Pierce Westwood High School

1801 PANTHER LANE, FORT PIERCE, FLA., 34947 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,465
90
28% 25
District 36.5K 2,430 27% 12
State 2.43M 163,474 19% 13
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
58%

63%

Take at Least One AP Course

37%
19%

27%

AP Pass Rate

44%
20%

12%

Take Advanced Math

30%
27%

29%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

6%
3%

2%

Take Chemistry

16%
15%

19%

Take Physics

5%
4%

10%

Participate in sports

24%
0.0%

23%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
3%
2%

0% Asian
24%
31%

47% Black
27%
21%

16% Hispanic
46%
45%

35% White

Fort Pierce Westwood High School, part of the St. Lucie district, is located in Fort Pierce, Florida. The school reports enrolling 1,465 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 90 teachers on staff.

Fort Pierce Westwood High School is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 50 percent of students in Florida qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 63 percent of students at Fort Pierce Westwood High School do. At the district level, 58 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.

Fort Pierce Westwood High School offers 25 AP courses, and 27 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 12 percent is below the district average of 20 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.

Fort Pierce Westwood High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 19 percent, 10 percent and 29 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 2 percent.

Florida Youth Challenge Academy is a lower-poverty school than Fort Pierce Westwood High School, with 1 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer a AP courses. The school is located in Starke, 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