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The Opportunity Gap

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.

From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.

Find a school

Century Junior High

21395 GOODVIEW AVENUE N, FOREST LAKE, MINN., 55025 | Grades 7-9

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
925
53
11% N/A
District 6,690 381 10% 17
State 526K 30,385 7% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

30%
20%

18%
State Avg: 30% District Avg: 20%

Take Advanced Math

20%
9%

0%
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 9%

Take Chemistry

21%
12%

0%
State Avg: 21% District Avg: 12%

Take Physics

11%
3%

0%
State Avg: 11% District Avg: 3%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 1%
8%
4%

3% Asian
State Avg: 8% District Avg: 4%
12%
1%

2% Black
State Avg: 12% District Avg: 1%
7%
2%

3% Hispanic
State Avg: 7% District Avg: 2%
71%
92%

92% White
State Avg: 71% District Avg: 92%

Century Junior High, part of the Forest Lake Public School District, is located in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The school reports enrolling 925 students in grades seven through nine, and it has 53 teachers on staff.

Century Junior 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 18 percent of Century Junior High students are eligible. At the district level, 20 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.

The school hasn't reported or may not have a gifted and talented program.

Brooklyn Junior High, in Brooklyn Park, Minn., is a higher-poverty school than Century Junior High, with 52 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 23 percent of students in the gifted and talented program.

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