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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

Butterfield Junior High School

319 N 12 ST, VAN BUREN, ARK., 72956 | Grades 7-9

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
700
45
9% N/A
District 5,930 353 7% 12
State 255K 16,851 8% 12
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

54%
51%

50%
State Avg: 54% District Avg: 51%

Take Advanced Math

14%
8%

0%
State Avg: 14% District Avg: 8%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

11%
7%

9%
State Avg: 11% District Avg: 7%

Take Chemistry

20%
22%

0%
State Avg: 20% District Avg: 22%

Take Physics

4%
6%

0%
State Avg: 4% District Avg: 6%

Participate in sports

33%
0.0%

53%
State Avg: 33% District Avg: 0.0%

Are

1%
2%

1% Am Indian
State Avg: 1% District Avg: 2%
2%
3%

4% Asian
State Avg: 2% District Avg: 3%
27%
2%

1% Black
State Avg: 27% District Avg: 2%
12%
12%

16% Hispanic
State Avg: 12% District Avg: 12%
57%
72%

70% White
State Avg: 57% District Avg: 72%

Butterfield Junior High School, part of the Van Buren School District, is located in Van Buren, Arkansas. The school reports an enrollment number of 700 students in grades seven through nine, and it has 45 teachers on staff.

Butterfield Junior High School is below 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, 54 percent of students in Arkansas are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 50 percent of Butterfield Junior High School students are eligible. At the district level, 51 percent 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.

Butterfield Junior High School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 9 percent.

Wonder Junior High School, in West Memphis, Ark., is a higher-poverty school than Butterfield Junior High School, with 99 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 3 percent of students in its 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