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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Mission Avenue Elementary

725 MISSION AVE NE, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., 87107 | Grades PreK-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
375
26
11%
District 87.7K 5,581 11%
State 275K 17,350 10%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

61%
53%

58%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

5%
6%

5%

Are

11%
5%

7% Am Indian
1%
2%

3% Asian
3%
4%

8% Black
56%
59%

63% Hispanic
28%
30%

21% White

Mission Avenue Elementary, part of the Albuquerque Public Schools district, is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The school reports an enrollment number of 375 students in grades pre-kindergarten through five, and it has 26 teachers on staff.

Mission Avenue Elementary is below the state average but above the district average for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 61 percent of students in New Mexico qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 58 percent of Mission Avenue Elementary students qualify. At the district level, 53 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.

Mission Avenue Elementary's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 5 percent.

Double Eagle Elementary, also in Albuquerque, N.M., is a lower-poverty school than Mission Avenue Elementary, with 4 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 10 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