ProPublica

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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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East Senior High

2900 E 4TH STREET, DULUTH, MINN., 55812 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,300
58
3% 5
District 9,200 560 3% 5
State 526K 30,385 7% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

30%
40%

14%

Take at Least One AP Course

23%
14%

17%

AP Pass Rate

59%
43%

60%

Take Advanced Math

20%
12%

24%

Take Chemistry

21%
18%

18%

Take Physics

11%
7%

10%

Participate in sports

60%
0.0%

47%

Are

1%
5%

1% Am Indian
8%
2%

3% Asian
12%
7%

3% Black
7%
2%

2% Hispanic
71%
84%

92% White

East Senior High, part of the Duluth Public School District, is located in Duluth, Minnesota. The school reports enrolling 1,300 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 58 teachers on staff.

East Senior 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, 30 percent of students in Minnesota are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 14 percent of East Senior High students are eligible. At the district level, 40 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.

East Senior High offers five AP courses, and 17 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is 60 percent. This is higher than the district average of 43 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.

East Senior High enrolls 24 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 18 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 10 percent.

Ell Transition Program, in Roseville, Minn., is a higher-poverty school than East Senior High, with 92 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer AP classes.

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