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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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Fallston High

2301 CARRS MILL RD, FALLSTON, MD., 21047 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,215
74
11% 16
District 38.5K 2,485 13% 13
State 826K 56,262 11% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
23%

5%

Take at Least One AP Course

23%
20%

30%

AP Pass Rate

60%
60%

59%

Take Advanced Math

17%
23%

31%

Take Chemistry

20%
16%

17%

Take Physics

12%
5%

5%

Participate in sports

38%
0.0%

59%

Are

0%
1%

1% Am Indian
6%
3%

2% Asian
37%
20%

5% Black
10%
4%

1% Hispanic
45%
72%

92% White

Fallston High, part of the Harford County Public Schools district, is located in Fallston, Maryland. The school reports enrolling 1,215 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 74 teachers on staff.

Fallston High is below both the state and district averages in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 34 percent of students in Maryland are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 5 percent of Fallston High students are eligible. At the district level, 23 percent 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.

Fallston High offers 16 AP courses, and 30 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 59 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate 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.

Fallston High enrolls 31 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 17 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 5 percent.

Vivien T Thomas Medical Arts Academy, in Baltimore, Md., is a higher-poverty school than Fallston High, with 81 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers two AP courses, and 6 percent of students are enrolled in those courses.

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