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

Kenmore Junior High

20323 66 AV NE, KENMORE, WASH., 98028 | Grades 6-9

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
745
35
3% N/A
District 19K 903 4% 8
State 833K 42,424 7% 8
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

38%
13%

15%

Take Advanced Math

15%
46%

0%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
32%

0%

Take Chemistry

14%
16%

0%

Take Physics

7%
33%

38%

Participate in sports

40%
0.0%

30%

Are

2%
1%

1% Am Indian
10%
12%

13% Asian
7%
2%

2% Black
16%
8%

5% Hispanic
64%
71%

74% White

Kenmore Junior High, part of the Northshore School District, is located in Kenmore, Washington. The school reports enrolling 745 students in grades six through nine, and it has 35 teachers on staff.

Kenmore Junior 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, 38 percent of students in Washington qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 15 percent of Kenmore Junior High students qualify. At the district level, 13 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.

Timbercrest Junior High, in Woodinville, Wash., is a lower-poverty school than Kenmore Junior High, with 3 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

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