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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Wesmere Elementary School

2001 WESMERE PKWY, PLAINFIELD, ILL., 60586 | Grades K-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
825
46
9%
District 29.2K 1,681 13%
State 1.36M 84,195 14%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

44%
9%

6%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
17%

5%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
5%
5%

2% Asian
24%
14%

14% Black
27%
19%

12% Hispanic
43%
61%

72% White

Wesmere Elementary School, part of the Plainfield School District 202, is located in Plainfield, Illinois. The school reports enrolling 825 students in grades kindergarten through five, and it has 46 teachers on staff.

Wesmere 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, 44 percent of students in Illinois are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 6 percent of Wesmere Elementary School students are eligible. At the district level, 9 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.

Wesmere Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 5 percent.

Greene N Elementary School, in Chicago, Ill., is a higher-poverty school than Wesmere Elementary School, with 100 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not have a 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