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

Robert F Kennedy Middle School

4000 GALLANT LN, CHARLOTTE, N.C., 28273 | Grades 6-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
625
39
27%
District 134K 8,244 11%
State 1.36M 88,261 10%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
46%

61%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
11%

6%

Are

2%
0%

0% Am Indian
3%
5%

6% Asian
28%
45%

54% Black
11%
16%

29% Hispanic
55%
33%

10% White

Robert F Kennedy Middle School, part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district, is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The school reports enrolling 625 students in grades six through eight, and it has 39 teachers on staff.

Robert F Kennedy Middle 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, 34 percent of students in North Carolina are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 61 percent of Robert F Kennedy Middle School students are eligible. At the district level, 46 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.

Robert F Kennedy Middle School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 6 percent.

Nash Central Middle School, a lower-poverty school than Robert F Kennedy Middle School, does not have any students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 9 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Nashville, N.C.

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