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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Kearns High

5525 S COUGAR LN, KEARNS, UTAH, 84118 | Grades 10-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,840
64
9% 12
District 69.5K 2,409 15% 11
State 467K 20,268 13% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

31%
22%

25%

Take at Least One AP Course

20%
21%

12%

AP Pass Rate

59%
68%

57%

Take Advanced Math

18%
25%

14%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

15%
23%

35%

Take Chemistry

19%
22%

29%

Take Physics

13%
15%

6%

Participate in sports

42%
0.0%

12%

Are

1%
2%

2% Am Indian
3%
4%

2% Asian
2%
3%

2% Black
16%
30%

32% Hispanic
78%
57%

55% White

Kearns High, part of the Granite District, is located in Kearns, Utah. The school reports an enrollment number of 1,840 students in grades 10 through 12, and it has 64 teachers on staff.

Kearns High is below the state average but above the district average for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 31 percent of students in Utah qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 25 percent of Kearns High students qualify. At the district level, 22 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.

Kearns High offers 12 AP courses, and 12 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams is 57 percent. This is lower than the district average of 68 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.

Kearns High has an enrollment rate of 14 percent for math classes, and 29 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 6 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 35 percent.

Ben Lomond High, in Ogden, Utah, is a higher-poverty school than Kearns High, with 69 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school offers four AP courses, and 5 percent of students are enrolled in those courses.

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