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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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Cranston High School West

80 METROPOLITAN AVENUE, CRANSTON, R.I., 02920 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,680
117
6% 8
District 10.6K 667 7% 6
State 110K 7,794 9% 5
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

44%
28%

8%

Take at Least One AP Course

9%
7%

8%

AP Pass Rate

43%
71%

60%

Take Advanced Math

11%
6%

8%

Take Chemistry

23%
21%

27%

Take Physics

13%
16%

27%

Participate in sports

42%
0.0%

51%

Are

1%
0%

1% Am Indian
4%
7%

4% Asian
10%
4%

2% Black
20%
17%

7% Hispanic
65%
68%

86% White

Cranston High School West, in Cranston, Rhode Island, is part of the Cranston district. The school reports enrolling 1,680 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 117 teachers on staff.

Cranston High School West is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 44 percent of students in Rhode Island qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 8 percent of students at Cranston High School West are eligible. At the district level, 28 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.

Cranston High School West offers eight AP courses, and 8 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 60 percent is below the district average of 71 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.

Cranston High School West enrolls 8 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 27 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 27 percent.

Providence Career And Technical High School, in Providence, R.I., is a higher-poverty school than Cranston High School West, with 91 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer AP classes.

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