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.

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Rivers Elementary School

8 PEACHTREE BATTLE AVEMUE, NW, ATLANTA, GA., 30305 | Grades PreK-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
520
42
2%
District 44.2K 3,439 11%
State 1.47M 103,585 8%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

52%
76%

39%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

11%
10%

18%

Are

0%
2%

16% Am Indian
3%
1%

3% Asian
37%
81%

31% Black
12%
4%

9% Hispanic
45%
11%

37% White

Rivers Elementary School, in Atlanta, Georgia, is part of the Atlanta City district. The school reports enrolling 520 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, and it has 42 teachers on staff.

Rivers Elementary 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, 52 percent of students in Georgia are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 39 percent of Rivers Elementary School students are eligible. At the district level, 76 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.

Rivers Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 18 percent.

Dobbs Elementary School, also in Atlanta, Ga., is a higher-poverty school than Rivers Elementary School, with 99 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 3 percent of students in its gifted and talented program.

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