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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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St. Amant High School

12035 HWY 431, ST. AMANT, LA., 70774 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,595
104
12% 9
District 19.3K 1,375 10% 10
State 606K 42,651 11% 6
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

63%
43%

28%

Take at Least One AP Course

7%
10%

13%

AP Pass Rate

32%
46%

42%

Take Advanced Math

10%
13%

15%

Take Chemistry

18%
24%

24%

Take Physics

6%
7%

7%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

35%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
1%

0% Asian
43%
30%

10% Black
3%
5%

2% Hispanic
51%
64%

87% White

St. Amant High School, in St. Amant, Louisiana, is part of the Ascension Parish School Board district. The school reports enrolling 1,595 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 104 teachers on staff.

St. Amant High School is below 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, 63 percent of students in Louisiana are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 28 percent of St. Amant High School students are eligible. At the district level, 43 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.

St. Amant High School offers nine AP courses, and 13 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 42 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 46 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.

St. Amant High School has an enrollment rate of 15 percent for advanced math classes, and 24 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 7 percent.

Varnado High School, in Varnado, La., is a higher-poverty school than St. Amant High School, with 97 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers four AP courses, and 5 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