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.

Find a school

Harlan County High School

4000 NORTH HWY 119, BAXTER, KY., 40806 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,155
61
3% 4
District 4,050 249 7% 4
State 495K 30,276 11% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

50%
72%

74%

Take at Least One AP Course

18%
4%

4%

AP Pass Rate

39%
0%

0%

Take Advanced Math

12%
2%

2%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

15%
16%

15%

Take Chemistry

17%
23%

23%

Take Physics

7%
3%

3%

Participate in sports

41%
0.0%

4%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
0%

0% Asian
13%
2%

3% Black
4%
0%

0% Hispanic
81%
97%

96% White

Harlan County High School, in Baxter, Kentucky, is part of the Harlan County district. The school reports enrolling 1,155 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 61 teachers on staff.

Harlan County High 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, 50 percent of students in Kentucky are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 74 percent of Harlan County High School students are eligible. At the district level, 72 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.

Harlan County High School offers four AP courses, and 4 percent of students participate in those classes.

Harlan County High School has an enrollment rate of 2 percent for math classes, and 23 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 3 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 15 percent.

North Oldham High School, in Goshen, Kentucky, is a lower-poverty school than Harlan County High School, with 5 percent of its students eligible 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