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.

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Foothill High School

800 COLLEGE DR, HENDERSON, NEV., 89015 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,580
107
7% 11
District 302K 15,025 9% 11
State 409K 21,153 8% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

40%
41%

15%

Take at Least One AP Course

12%
11%

10%

AP Pass Rate

48%
48%

57%

Take Advanced Math

12%
12%

14%

Take Chemistry

17%
18%

12%

Take Physics

4%
5%

3%

Participate in sports

30%
0.0%

34%

Are

1%
1%

1% Am Indian
8%
10%

6% Asian
11%
14%

7% Black
38%
41%

18% Hispanic
41%
35%

68% White

Foothill High School, part of the Clark County School District, is located in Henderson, Nevada. The school reports an enrollment number of 2,580 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 107 teachers on staff.

Foothill High School 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, 40 percent of students in Nevada are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 15 percent of Foothill High School students are eligible. At the district level, 41 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.

Foothill High School offers 11 AP courses, and 10 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 57 percent is higher than the district average of 48 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.

Foothill High School has an enrollment rate of 14 percent for advanced math classes, and 12 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 3 percent.

McDermitt High School, in Mcdermitt, Nev., is a higher-poverty school than Foothill High School, with 80 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