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

L.W. Higgins High School

7201 LAPALCO BOULEVARD, MARRERO, LA., 70072 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,305
95
16% 31
District 39.5K 3,162 10% 31
State 606K 42,651 11% 6
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

63%
75%

66%

Take at Least One AP Course

7%
7%

4%

AP Pass Rate

32%
7%

0%

Take Advanced Math

10%
14%

11%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

4%
7%

3%

Take Chemistry

18%
20%

24%

Take Physics

6%
8%

5%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

13%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
1%
5%

5% Asian
43%
48%

66% Black
3%
14%

5% Hispanic
51%
32%

24% White

L.W. Higgins High School, part of the Jefferson Parish School Board district, is located in Marrero, Louisiana. The school reports enrolling 1,305 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 95 teachers on staff.

L.W. Higgins High School is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 63 percent of students in Louisiana are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 66 percent of L.W. Higgins High School students do. At the district level, 75 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.

L.W. Higgins High School offers 31 AP courses, and 4 percent of students participate in those classes.

L.W. Higgins High School has an enrollment rate of 11 percent for math classes, and 24 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 5 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 3 percent.

Mandeville High School, in Mandeville, Louisiana, is a lower-poverty school than L.W. Higgins High School, with 13 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 10 AP courses, and 13 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