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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

Jimmy C. Draughn High School

709 LOVELADY ROAD, NE, VALDESE, N.C., 28690 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
775
50
9% 11
District 13.5K 993 8% 8
State 1.36M 88,261 10% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
10%

6%
State Avg: 14% District Avg: 10%

AP Pass Rate

51%
47%

50%
State Avg: 51% District Avg: 47%

Take Advanced Math

20%
13%

8%
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 13%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
14%

21%
State Avg: 12% District Avg: 14%

Take Chemistry

13%
12%

8%
State Avg: 13% District Avg: 12%

Take Physics

3%
1%

1%
State Avg: 3% District Avg: 1%

Participate in sports

39%
0.0%

58%
State Avg: 39% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

2%
0%

1% Am Indian
State Avg: 2% District Avg: 0%
3%
7%

11% Asian
State Avg: 3% District Avg: 7%
28%
8%

3% Black
State Avg: 28% District Avg: 8%
11%
7%

4% Hispanic
State Avg: 11% District Avg: 7%
55%
77%

81% White
State Avg: 55% District Avg: 77%

Jimmy C. Draughn High School, in Valdese, North Carolina, is part of the Burke County Schools district. The school reports enrolling 775 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 50 teachers on staff.

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.

Jimmy C. Draughn High School offers 11 AP courses, and 6 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is 50 percent. This is higher than the district average of 47 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.

Jimmy C. Draughn High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 8 percent, 1 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 21 percent.

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