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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Messalonskee High School

131 MESSALONSKEE HIGH DRIVE, OAKLAND, MAINE, 04963 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
825
67
10% 6
District 3,025 224 10% 6
State 58.2K 4,434 8% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Take at Least One AP Course

11%
12%

12%

AP Pass Rate

55%
89%

89%

Take Advanced Math

16%
10%

10%

Take Chemistry

22%
8%

8%

Take Physics

12%
4%

4%

Participate in sports

50%
0.0%

61%

Are

0%
0%

1% Am Indian
3%
1%

1% Asian
6%
1%

1% Black
2%
0%

1% Hispanic
89%
97%

96% White

Messalonskee High School, in Oakland, Maine, is part of the Regional School Unit 18 district. The school reports enrolling 825 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 67 teachers on staff.

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.

Messalonskee High School offers six 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 89 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.

Messalonskee High School has an enrollment rate of 10 percent for advanced math classes, and 8 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 4 percent.

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