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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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Konawaena High School

81-1043 KONAWAENA SCHOOL ROAD, KEALAKEKUA, HAWAII, 96750 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
675
45
7% 6
District 172K 10,788 12% 9
State 172K 10,788 12% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

42%
42%

43%

Take at Least One AP Course

7%
7%

4%

AP Pass Rate

43%
42%

100%

Take Advanced Math

10%
10%

12%

Take Chemistry

17%
17%

13%

Take Physics

9%
9%

1%

Participate in sports

43%
0.0%

74%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
73%
73%

66% Asian
3%
3%

1% Black
5%
5%

7% Hispanic
19%
19%

24% White

Konawaena High School, part of the Hawaii Department Of Education district, is located in Kealakekua, Hawaii. The school reports enrolling 675 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 45 teachers on staff.

Konawaena 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, 42 percent of students in Hawaii are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 43 percent of Konawaena High School students are eligible. At the district level, 42 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.

Konawaena High School offers six AP courses, and 4 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 100 percent is higher than the district average of 42 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.

Konawaena High School enrolls 12 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 13 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 1 percent.

Mililani High School, in Mililani, Hawaii, is a lower-poverty school than Konawaena High School, with 11 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 17 AP courses, and 16 percent of students are enrolled in those classs.

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