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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Branch Elementary School

8362 BRANCH HIGHWAY, BRANCH, LA., 70516 | Grades NOT CONTINUOUS

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
265
18
11%
District 9,415 606 10%
State 606K 42,651 11%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

63%
63%

52%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
0%

0% Asian
43%
28%

23% Black
3%
1%

0% Hispanic
51%
70%

77% White

Branch Elementary School, part of the Acadia Parish School Board district, is located in Branch, Louisiana. The school reports enrolling 265 students in grades pre-kindergarten through eight, and it has 18 teachers on staff.

Branch Elementary 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, 63 percent of students in Louisiana qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 52 percent of students at Branch Elementary School are eligible. At the district level, 63 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.

The school hasn't reported or may not have a gifted and talented program.

James Weldon Johnson School, in New Orleans, La., is a higher-poverty school than Branch Elementary School, with 99 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 2 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