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

Spruce Creek High School

801 TAYLOR RD, PORT ORANGE, FLA., 32127 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,780
154
4% N/A
District 60.5K 4,098 11% 24
State 2.43M 163,474 19% 13
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
47%

17%

Take at Least One AP Course

37%
28%

36%

AP Pass Rate

44%
44%

54%

Take Advanced Math

30%
31%

53%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

6%
6%

5%

Take Chemistry

16%
16%

20%

Take Physics

5%
4%

3%

Participate in sports

24%
0.0%

32%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
2%

5% Asian
24%
15%

8% Black
27%
19%

6% Hispanic
46%
64%

81% White

Spruce Creek High School, in Port Orange, Florida, is part of the Volusia district. The school reports enrolling 2,780 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 154 teachers on staff.

Spruce Creek High School is below 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 programs, while 17 percent of Spruce Creek High School students are eligible. At the district level, 47 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.

Spruce Creek High School enrolls 36 percent of its students in AP classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 54 percent is higher than the district average of 44 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.

Spruce Creek High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 20 percent, 3 percent and 53 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 5 percent.

Glades Central High School, in Belle Glade, Fla., is a higher-poverty school than Spruce Creek High School, with 89 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 27 AP courses, and 48 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