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

Roosevelt Junior High School

111 W 146TH ST, DOLTON, ILL., 60419 | Grades 7-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
220
26
15%
District 2,660 231 12%
State 1.36M 84,195 14%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

44%
76%

93%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
10%

16%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
5%
0%

0% Asian
24%
98%

100% Black
27%
2%

0% Hispanic
43%
0%

0% White

Roosevelt Junior High School, in Dolton, Illinois, is part of the Dolton School District 148. The school reports enrolling 220 students in grades seven and eight, and it has 26 teachers on staff.

Roosevelt Junior 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, 44 percent of students in Illinois qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 93 percent of students at Roosevelt Junior High School do. At the district level, 76 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.

Roosevelt Junior High School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 16 percent.

Summit Hill Junior High School is a lower-poverty school than Roosevelt Junior High School, with 4 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 7 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Frankfort, Ill.

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