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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Fishers High School

13000 PROMISE RD, FISHERS, IND., 46038 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,070
121
7% N/A
District 18K 984 6% 0
State 720K 41,652 9% 10
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

43%
11%

13%

Take at Least One AP Course

16%
31%

32%

AP Pass Rate

45%
59%

59%

Take Advanced Math

11%
18%

18%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

14%
32%

49%

Take Chemistry

20%
28%

28%

Take Physics

7%
16%

14%

Participate in sports

37%
0.0%

35%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
2%
5%

4% Asian
17%
7%

7% Black
9%
3%

3% Hispanic
70%
80%

81% White

Fishers High School, part of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools district, is located in Fishers, Indiana. The school reports enrolling 2,070 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 121 teachers on staff.

Fishers High School is below the state average but above the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 43 percent of students in Indiana are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 13 percent of Fishers High School students are eligible. At the district level, 11 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.

Fishers High School enrolls 32 percent of its students in AP classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams matches the district's, each of which is 59 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.

Fishers High School has an enrollment rate of 18 percent for math classes, and 28 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 14 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 49 percent.

East Chicago Central High School, in East Chicago, Ind., is a higher-poverty school than Fishers High School, with 88 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers three AP courses, and 2 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