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

Forest Park High

3701 ELDORADO AVE, BALTIMORE, MD., 21207 | Grades NOT CONTINUOUS

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
740
47
30% 3
District 74K 4,940 21% 3
State 826K 56,262 11% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
74%

63%

Take at Least One AP Course

23%
8%

5%

AP Pass Rate

60%
18%

0%

Take Advanced Math

17%
8%

0%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

25%
5%

1%

Take Chemistry

20%
22%

35%

Take Physics

12%
17%

3%

Participate in sports

38%
0.0%

16%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
6%
1%

0% Asian
37%
88%

99% Black
10%
3%

0% Hispanic
45%
8%

1% White

Forest Park High, in Baltimore, Maryland, is part of the Baltimore City Public Schools district. The school reports enrolling 740 students in grades three through 12, and it has 47 teachers on staff.

Forest Park High 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, 34 percent of students in Maryland are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 63 percent of Forest Park High students do. At the district level, 74 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.

Forest Park High has an enrollment rate of 3 percent for physics classes, and 35 percent of students take physics. The enrollment rate for the school's gifted and talented program is 1 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