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

Powhatan Jr. High

4135 OLD BUCKINGHAM RD., POWHATAN, VA., 23139 | Grades 7-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
680
54
2%
District 4,480 332 5%
State 1.13M 81,901 9%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

32%
14%

14%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

13%
4%

6%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
7%
1%

1% Asian
26%
10%

10% Black
10%
2%

1% Hispanic
57%
87%

88% White

Powhatan Jr. High, part of the Powhatan County Public Schools district, is located in Powhatan, Virginia. The school reports an enrollment number of 680 students in grades seven and eight, and it has 54 teachers on staff.

Powhatan Jr. High is below the state average and in line with the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 32 percent of students in Virginia qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 14 percent of Powhatan Jr. High students do. At the district level, 14 percent 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.

Powhatan Jr. High's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 6 percent.

Cradock Middle School, in Portsmouth, Va., is a higher-poverty school than Powhatan Jr. High, with 76 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 38 percent of students in the 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