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.
From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.
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Portland High School
284 CUMBERLAND AVENUE, PORTLAND, MAINE, 04101 | Grades 9-12
| Students | Total Teachers | Inexp. Teachers | AP Courses | |
| This School |
910
|
81
|
8% | 10 |
| District | 7,010 | 631 | 12% | 6 |
| State | 58.2K | 4,434 | 8% | 9 |
Portland High School, part of the Portland Public Schools district, is located in Portland, Maine. The school reports enrolling 910 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 81 teachers on staff.
Portland High School is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 38 percent of students in Maine qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 49 percent of students at Portland High School do. At the district level, 45 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.
Portland High School offers 10 AP courses, and 12 percent of students participate in those classes.
The school's pass rate for AP exams is 45 percent. This is lower than the district average of 60 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.
Portland High School enrolls 11 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 20 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 4 percent.
Edward Little High School, in Auburn, Maine, is a lower-poverty school than Portland 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
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