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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Leoma Elementary School

2612 HWY 43 S, LEOMA, TENN., 38468 | Grades PreK-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
540
35
11%
District 6,715 452 13%
State 877K 57,021 12%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

49%
55%

55%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

3%
1%

1%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
2%
0%

0% Asian
25%
2%

1% Black
6%
1%

0% Hispanic
67%
96%

98% White

Leoma Elementary School, in Leoma, Tennessee, is part of the Lawrence County School Distrct district. The school reports enrolling 540 students in grades pre-kindergarten through eight, and it has 35 teachers on staff.

Leoma Elementary School is above the state average and on par with the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 49 percent of students in Tennessee qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 55 percent of Leoma Elementary School students do. At the district level, 55 percent of students qualify.

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.

Leoma Elementary School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 1 percent.

Range Elementary School, in Watauga, Tenn., is a higher-poverty school than Leoma Elementary School, with 98 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not have a gifted and talented program.

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