Liberal South Middle School, part of the Liberal district, is located in Liberal, Kansas. The school reports enrolling 320 students in grades seven and eight, and it has 29 teachers on staff.

Liberal South Middle 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, 45 percent of students in Kansas are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 89 percent of Liberal South Middle School students are eligible. At the district level, 71 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.

Mission Valley Middle School, in Shawnee Mission, Kan., is a lower-poverty school than Liberal South Middle School, with 11 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 13 percent of students in its 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