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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

Walter Johnson Junior High School

7701 DUCHARME AVE, LAS VEGAS, NEV., 89145 | Grades 6-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
1,150
58
2%
District 302K 15,025 9%
State 409K 21,153 8%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

40%
41%

41%
State Avg: 40% District Avg: 41%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 1%
8%
10%

10% Asian
State Avg: 8% District Avg: 10%
11%
14%

15% Black
State Avg: 11% District Avg: 14%
38%
41%

31% Hispanic
State Avg: 38% District Avg: 41%
41%
35%

43% White
State Avg: 41% District Avg: 35%

Walter Johnson Junior High School, part of the Clark County School District, is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,150 students in grades six through eight, and it has 58 teachers on staff.

Walter Johnson Junior High School is above the state average and on par with the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 40 percent of students in Nevada qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 41 percent of Walter Johnson Junior High School students do. At the district level, 41 percent of students qualify.

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.

Fred W. Traner Middle School, in Reno, Nev., is a higher-poverty school than Walter Johnson Junior High School, with 80 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 1 percent of students in its 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