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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Christian County High School

220 GLASS AVE, HOPKINSVILLE, KY., 42240 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,330
104
14% 8
District 9,265 586 15% 10
State 495K 30,276 11% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
66%

59%

Take at Least One AP Course

18%
22%

24%

AP Pass Rate

39%
13%

15%

Take Advanced Math

12%
4%

5%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

15%
11%

22%

Take Chemistry

17%
19%

28%

Take Physics

7%
1%

1%

Participate in sports

41%
0.0%

42%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
1%

0% Asian
13%
35%

37% Black
4%
4%

1% Hispanic
81%
60%

62% White

Christian County High School, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, is part of the Christian County district. The school reports enrolling 1,330 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 104 teachers on staff.

Christian County High School is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 50 percent of students in Kentucky qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 59 percent of Christian County High School students do. At the district level, 66 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.

Christian County High School offers eight AP courses, and 24 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 15 percent is higher than the district average of 13 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.

Christian County High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 28 percent, 1 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 22 percent.

North Oldham High School, in Goshen, Kentucky, is a lower-poverty school than Christian County High School, with 5 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 20 AP courses, and 39 percent of students are enrolled in those classs.

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