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

Paradise Valley High School

3950 E BELL ROAD, PHOENIX, ARIZ., 85032 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,530
89
16% 11
District 32.6K 1,654 9% 14
State 850K 43,995 11% 10
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

47%
29%

36%

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
18%

15%

AP Pass Rate

58%
70%

63%

Take Advanced Math

13%
15%

17%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
13%

12%

Take Chemistry

13%
20%

17%

Take Physics

5%
15%

17%

Participate in sports

35%
0.0%

40%

Are

3%
1%

1% Am Indian
3%
4%

4% Asian
6%
4%

5% Black
43%
24%

34% Hispanic
44%
67%

56% White

Paradise Valley High School, part of the Paradise Valley Unified District, is located in Phoenix, Arizona. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,530 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 89 teachers on staff.

Paradise Valley High School is below the state average but above the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 47 percent of students in Arizona are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 36 percent of Paradise Valley High School students are eligible. At the district level, 29 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.

Paradise Valley High School offers 11 AP courses, and 15 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 63 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 70 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.

Paradise Valley High School has an enrollment rate of 17 percent for math classes, and 17 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 17 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 12 percent.

San Luis High School, in San Luis, Ariz., is a higher-poverty school than Paradise Valley High School, with 100 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers seven AP courses, and 9 percent of students are enrolled in those courses.

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