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.

Find a school

Bowie Elementary

2902 CHICAGO, LUBBOCK, TEXAS, 79407 | Grades K-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
245
16
0%
District 27.8K 1,910 12%
State 4.01M 269,017 14%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

48%
60%

57%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
4%
2%

2% Asian
15%
15%

6% Black
50%
50%

45% Hispanic
29%
33%

47% White

Bowie Elementary, part of the Lubbock ISD, is located in Lubbock, Texas. The school reports enrolling 245 students in grades kindergarten through five, and it has 16 teachers on staff.

Bowie Elementary is above the state average but below the district average in terms of the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 48 percent of students in Texas are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 57 percent of Bowie Elementary students do. At the district level, 60 percent of students 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.

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