Valley High School, part of the West Des Moines Community School District, is located in West Des Moines, Iowa. The school reports enrolling 1,915 students in grades 10 through 12, and it has 119 teachers on staff.

Valley High School is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 38 percent of students in Iowa qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 12 percent of students at Valley High School are eligible. At the district level, 18 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.

Valley High School offers 16 AP courses, and 22 percent of students participate in those classes.

Valley High School has an enrollment rate of 19 percent for math classes, and 26 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 10 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 4 percent.

Prairie High School, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a higher-poverty school than Valley High School, with 20 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers eight AP courses, and 41 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