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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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South Milwaukee High

801 15TH AVE, SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WIS., 53172 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
1,190
69
3% 9
District 3,380 190 4% 9
State 482K 33,937 8% 9
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

36%
33%

26%

Take at Least One AP Course

18%
26%

26%

AP Pass Rate

65%
33%

33%

Take Advanced Math

16%
37%

37%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

12%
19%

23%

Take Chemistry

19%
21%

21%

Take Physics

11%
8%

8%

Participate in sports

52%
0.0%

50%

Are

1%
2%

2% Am Indian
5%
1%

1% Asian
15%
5%

5% Black
11%
13%

11% Hispanic
67%
79%

80% White

South Milwaukee High, in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is part of the South Milwaukee district. The school reports enrolling 1,190 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 69 teachers on staff.

South Milwaukee High 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, 36 percent of students in Wisconsin are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, while 26 percent of South Milwaukee High students are eligible. At the district level, 33 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.

South Milwaukee High offers nine AP courses, and 26 percent of students participate in those classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams matches the district's, each of which is 33 percent.

A school's AP pass rate is determined by the number of students who both sat for AP exams and passed some or all of those exams.

South Milwaukee High's enrollment rates in chemistry, physics and advanced math subject areas are 21 percent, 8 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Gifted and talented at the school has an enrollment rate of 23 percent.

Cornerstone Academy, in Milwaukee, Wis., is a higher-poverty school than South Milwaukee High, with 86 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school hasn't reported or may not offer AP classes.

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