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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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Richmond Senior High

838 US 1 NORTH, ROCKINGHAM, N.C., 28379 | Grades 10-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,375
93
10% 8
District 7,405 515 13% 4
State 1.36M 88,261 10% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

34%
66%

53%

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
12%

12%

AP Pass Rate

51%
14%

14%

Take Advanced Math

20%
19%

19%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
12%

15%

Take Chemistry

13%
12%

13%

Take Physics

3%
3%

3%

Are

2%
5%

5% Am Indian
3%
1%

1% Asian
28%
41%

44% Black
11%
7%

5% Hispanic
55%
46%

45% White

Richmond Senior High, in Rockingham, North Carolina, is part of the Richmond County Schools district. The school reports enrolling 1,375 students in grades 10 through 12, and it has 93 teachers on staff.

Richmond Senior High is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 34 percent of students in North Carolina are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 53 percent of Richmond Senior High students do. At the district level, 66 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.

Richmond Senior High offers eight AP courses, and 12 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams matches the district's, each of which is 14 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.

Richmond Senior High's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 13 percent, 3 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 15 percent.

Scotland High School Of Math Science, in Laurinburg, North Carolina, is a lower-poverty school than Richmond Senior High, with 32 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers eight AP courses, and 21 percent of students are enrolled in those classs.

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