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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Edward J. Patten Elementary School

500 CHARLES STREET, PERTH AMBOY, N.J., 08861 | Grades K-4

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
800
64
12%
District 9,460 758 13%
State 880K 72,554 11%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

35%
74%

80%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
11%

3%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
10%
1%

0% Asian
19%
7%

9% Black
24%
81%

88% Hispanic
46%
2%

2% White

Edward J. Patten Elementary School, part of the Perth Amboy district, is located in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The school reports an enrollment number of 800 students in grades kindergarten through four, and it has 64 teachers on staff.

Edward J. Patten Elementary School is above 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, 35 percent of students in New Jersey are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 80 percent of Edward J. Patten Elementary School students are eligible. At the district level, 74 percent of students 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.

Edward J. Patten Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 3 percent.

Stony Lane Elementary, a lower-poverty school than Edward J. Patten Elementary School, does not have any students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 7 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Paramus, N.J.

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