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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Eagle Valley Middle School

747 EAST 3RD STREET, EAGLE, COLO., 81631 | Grades 6-8

Districts with 3,000 or more students
Students Total Teachers Inexp. Teachers
This School
280
18
6%
District 5,760 374 15%
State 669K 37,345 13%
 
State Average
 
District Average

Percentage of relevant students who...

Get Free/Reduced Price Lunch

35%
37%

28%

Are in a Gifted/Talented Program

8%
8%

20%

Are

1%
0%

0% Am Indian
4%
1%

0% Asian
6%
0%

0% Black
29%
53%

30% Hispanic
60%
44%

68% White

Eagle Valley Middle School, in Eagle, Colorado, is part of the Eagle County School District No. RE 50. The school reports enrolling 280 students in grades six through eight, and it has 18 teachers on staff.

Eagle Valley Middle School is below both the state and district averages for the percentage of its students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. On average, 35 percent of students in Colorado qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, whereas 28 percent of students at Eagle Valley Middle School are eligible. At the district level, 37 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.

Eagle Valley Middle School's enrollment rate for gifted and talented is 20 percent.

Aurora West College Preparatory School, in Aurora, Colo., is a higher-poverty school than Eagle Valley Middle School, with 96 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school enrolls 7 percent of students in the 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