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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.

Find a school

La Costa Canyon High

3451 CAMINO DE LOS COCHES, ENCINITAS, CALIF., 92009 | Grades 9-12

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers AP Courses
This School
2,485
92
8% N/A
District 12.6K 483 9% 0
State 5.34M 237,404 6% 11
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

53%
8%

11%

Take at Least One AP Course

19%
41%

38%

AP Pass Rate

59%
79%

66%

Take Advanced Math

12%
19%

20%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

10%
39%

30%

Take Chemistry

16%
15%

20%

Take Physics

7%
13%

14%

Participate in sports

32%
0.0%

39%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
12%
15%

6% Asian
7%
1%

1% Black
52%
13%

16% Hispanic
26%
71%

76% White

La Costa Canyon High, part of the San Dieguito Union High School district, is located in Encinitas, California. The school reports an enrollment number of 2,485 students in grades nine through 12, and it has 92 teachers on staff.

La Costa Canyon High is below the state average but above the district average in terms of the percentage of its students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. On average, 53 percent of students in California are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs, whereas 11 percent of La Costa Canyon High students are eligible. At the district level, 8 percent of students 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.

La Costa Canyon High enrolls 38 percent of its students in AP classes.

The school's pass rate for AP exams of 66 percent is below the district average of 79 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.

La Costa Canyon High has an enrollment rate of 20 percent for math classes, and 20 percent of students take chemistry. The enrollment rate for physics at the school is 14 percent, and the gifted and talented program has a participation rate of 30 percent.

Sequoia High School, in Merced, Calif., is a higher-poverty school than La Costa Canyon High, with 100 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