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.

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Santa Rita High School

3951 S. PANTANO RD, TUCSON, ARIZ., 85730 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,220
56
13% 13
District 55K 2,816 9% 10
State 850K 43,995 11% 10
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

47%
53%

31%

Take at Least One AP Course

14%
13%

10%

AP Pass Rate

58%
69%

20%

Take Advanced Math

13%
10%

7%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
9%

2%

Take Chemistry

13%
12%

11%

Take Physics

5%
4%

1%

Participate in sports

35%
0.0%

53%

Are

3%
4%

2% Am Indian
3%
3%

6% Asian
6%
8%

11% Black
43%
56%

31% Hispanic
44%
29%

50% White

Santa Rita High School, part of the Tucson Unified District, is located in Tucson, Arizona. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,220 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 56 teachers on staff.

Santa Rita High School is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 47 percent of students in Arizona qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 31 percent of students at Santa Rita High School are eligible. At the district level, 53 percent 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.

Santa Rita High School offers 13 AP courses, and 10 percent of students participate in those classes.

For AP tests, the school's pass rate is below the district average, with 20 percent of students passing some or all AP tests. Compare this to the district rate of 69 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.

Santa Rita High School has an enrollment rate of 7 percent for math classes, and 11 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 2 percent.

San Luis High School, in San Luis, Ariz., is a higher-poverty school than Santa Rita 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