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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Mt Lookout Elementary School

HC 80 BOX 319, MOUNT LOOKOUT, W.VA., 26678 | Grades K-5

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
125
8
0%
District 4,055 284 5%
State 241K 15,894 9%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

49%
56%

59%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

2%
2%

0%

Are

0%
0%

0% Am Indian
1%
0%

0% Asian
6%
1%

0% Black
1%
0%

0% Hispanic
92%
99%

100% White

Mt Lookout Elementary School, part of the Nicholas County Schools district, is located in Mount Lookout, West Virginia. The school reports enrolling 125 students in grades kindergarten through five, and it has eight teachers on staff.

Mt Lookout Elementary School is above both the state and district averages for the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 49 percent of students in West Virginia qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, while 59 percent of students at Mt Lookout Elementary School do. At the district level, 56 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.

West Teays Elementary is a lower-poverty school than Mt Lookout Elementary School, with 14 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 2 percent of students in its gifted and talented program. The school is located in Hurricane, W. 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