ProPublica

Journalism in the Public Interest

Cancel

The Opportunity Gap

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.

From http://projects.propublica.org/schools. © Copyright 2011 Pro Publica Inc.

Find a school

Barrington High School

220 LINCOLN AVENUE, BARRINGTON, R.I., 02806 | Grades 9-11

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,150
73
7% 16
District 3,485 169 4% 0
State 110K 7,794 9% 5
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Take at Least One AP Course

9%
17%

17%
State Avg: 9% District Avg: 17%

AP Pass Rate

43%

49%

Take Chemistry

23%

23%

Take Physics

13%

10%

Participate in sports

42%
0.0%

59%
State Avg: 42% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 0%
4%
4%

3% Asian
State Avg: 4% District Avg: 4%
10%
1%

1% Black
State Avg: 10% District Avg: 1%
20%
2%

1% Hispanic
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 2%
65%
92%

95% White
State Avg: 65% District Avg: 92%

Barrington High School, part of the Barrington district, is located in Barrington, Rhode Island. The school reports enrolling 1,150 students in grades nine through 11, and it has 73 teachers on staff.

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.

Barrington High School offers 16 AP courses, and 17 percent of students participate in those classes.

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.

Barrington High School enrolls 34 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 23 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 10 percent.

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