ProPublica

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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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West Linn High School

5464 W 'A' ST, WEST LINN, ORE., 97068 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,520
70
10% 14
District 8,315 409 8% 16
State 426K 20,551 7% 6
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

46%
17%

7%

Take at Least One AP Course

16%
24%

25%

AP Pass Rate

61%
66%

63%

Take Advanced Math

13%
27%

29%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

9%
16%

22%

Take Chemistry

12%
24%

24%

Take Physics

6%
16%

18%

Participate in sports

40%
0.0%

57%

Are

2%
0%

0% Am Indian
5%
5%

5% Asian
3%
1%

1% Black
20%
8%

2% Hispanic
66%
85%

91% White

West Linn High School, part of the West Linn-Wilsonville School District 3J, is located in West Linn, Oregon. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,520 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 70 teachers on staff.

West Linn High School is below 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, 46 percent of students in Oregon are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 7 percent of West Linn High School students are eligible. At the district level, 17 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.

West Linn High School offers 14 AP courses, and 25 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 66 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.

West Linn High School's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 24 percent, 18 percent and 29 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 22 percent.

McKay High School, in Salem, Ore., is a higher-poverty school than West Linn High School, with 93 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers 14 AP courses, and 11 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