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.

Find a school

South Columbus High

40 STALLION DRIVE, TABOR CITY, N.C., 28463 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
685
51
12% 13
District 6,615 446 11% 4
State 1.36M 88,261 10% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
4%

5%

AP Pass Rate

51%
0%

0%

Take Advanced Math

20%
5%

7%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
6%

14%

Take Chemistry

13%
12%

8%

Take Physics

3%
4%

1%

Participate in sports

39%
0.0%

61%

Are

2%
6%

0% Am Indian
3%
0%

0% Asian
28%
35%

26% Black
11%
7%

4% Hispanic
55%
53%

69% White

South Columbus High, part of the Columbus County Schools district, is located in Tabor City, North Carolina. The school reports enrolling 685 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 51 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.

South Columbus High offers 13 AP courses, and 5 percent of students participate in those classes.

South Columbus High has an enrollment rate of 7 percent for math classes, and 8 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 1 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 14 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