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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

Vandegrift High School

9700 MCNEIL DRIVE, AUSTIN, TEXAS, 78750 | Grades 9-10

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
555
47
12% 1
District 29.6K 2,056 24% 24
State 4.01M 269,017 14% 15
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Take at Least One AP Course

20%
25%

14%
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 25%

AP Pass Rate

48%
63%

50%
State Avg: 48% District Avg: 63%

Take Advanced Math

10%
26%

2%
State Avg: 10% District Avg: 26%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
14%

17%
State Avg: 8% District Avg: 14%

Take Chemistry

26%
23%

31%
State Avg: 26% District Avg: 23%

Take Physics

14%
18%

0%
State Avg: 14% District Avg: 18%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

67%
State Avg: 32% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

0%
1%

0% Am Indian
State Avg: 0% District Avg: 1%
4%
6%

6% Asian
State Avg: 4% District Avg: 6%
15%
5%

4% Black
State Avg: 15% District Avg: 5%
50%
20%

11% Hispanic
State Avg: 50% District Avg: 20%
29%
68%

79% White
State Avg: 29% District Avg: 68%

Vandegrift High School, part of the Leander ISD, is located in Austin, Texas. The school reports an enrollment number of 555 students in grades nine and 10, and it has 47 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.

Vandegrift High School offers one AP course, and 14 percent of students participate in that class.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 50 percent is below the district average of 63 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.

Vandegrift High School has enrolls 2 percent of students in advanced math classes, and 31 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for the school's gifted and talented program is 0 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