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

Lewiston High School

156 EAST AVENUE, LEWISTON, MAINE, 04240 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,400
106
5% 9
District 4,895 354 6% 9
State 58.2K 4,434 8% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

38%
60%

43%

Take at Least One AP Course

11%
12%

12%

AP Pass Rate

55%
35%

35%

Take Advanced Math

16%
9%

9%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

5%
7%

8%

Take Chemistry

22%
24%

24%

Take Physics

12%
12%

12%

Participate in sports

50%
0.0%

54%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
1%

2% Asian
6%
25%

20% Black
2%
3%

2% Hispanic
89%
71%

75% White

Lewiston High School, in Lewiston, Maine, is part of the Lewiston School Department district. The school reports enrolling 1,400 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 106 teachers on staff.

Lewiston 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, 38 percent of students in Maine qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 43 percent of Lewiston High School students do. At the district level, 60 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.

Lewiston High School offers nine AP courses, and 12 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams matches the district's, each of which is 35 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.

Lewiston High School has an enrollment rate of 9 percent for math classes, and 24 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 12 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 8 percent.

Edward Little High School, in Auburn, Maine, is a lower-poverty school than Lewiston High School, with 2 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 11 AP courses, and 10 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