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

Waterman Elementary

451 CHICAGO AVE, HARRISONBURG, VA., 22802 | Grades PreK-4

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
425
38
5%
District 4,590 417 9%
State 1.13M 81,901 9%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

32%
58%

66%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
9%

2%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
7%
4%

7% Asian
26%
12%

8% Black
10%
39%

44% Hispanic
57%
45%

42% White

Waterman Elementary, part of the Harrisonburg City Public Schools district, is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The school reports enrolling 425 students in grades pre-kindergarten through four, and it has 38 teachers on staff.

Waterman Elementary is above both the state and district averages in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 32 percent of students in Virginia are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, whereas 66 percent of Waterman Elementary students are eligible. At the district level, 58 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.

Waterman Elementary's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 2 percent.

Flat Rock Elementary is a lower-poverty school than Waterman Elementary, with 15 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 2 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Powhatan, Va.

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