ProPublica’s analysis tracks from 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 of Civil Rights. As of January 24, 2013, our analysis includes new
figures: AP test pass rates and participation in sports programs. You can search the data for yourself in our interactive feature. 

The office is charged with making sure that all students have access to
educational programs. The data track access to several programs, including AP,
gifted and talented programs and advanced math and science classes. Those
factors are aggregated by race, disability status, gender and English
proficiency. The data also track whether teachers at schools are certified and
how much experience they have.

The data in our analysis were gathered for all schools in districts with at
least 3,000 students. The data also track district characteristics such as
whether it is under a desegregation plan or whether it has anti-bullying
policies.

The data were reported by schools and districts to the Office of Civil
Rights. ProPublica spent several weeks verifying the accuracy of the data.
Where we were able, we corrected extreme outliers and contacted hundreds of
schools to verify their data. Because of some of the problems we found in the
initial data, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn
Ali said that the office is revamping its process for gathering and verifying
their data. We also vetted our analysis with education research experts.

We may not have accounted for every problem in the data and welcome feedback from schools and
districts.

Using a statistical tool called linear regression, ProPublica analyzed the
data to see if schools with certain student compositions were more or less
likely to have students enrolled in those programs. We did not include
alternative, magnet or charter schools in our data because they often offer
specialized programs and do not draw from the general population. We also
included only schools with at least 20 students, to eliminate problems inherent
to small populations.

While we found some relationship between the proportion of minority students
at schools and access to programs, we found the strongest relationship with the
percent of students getting free- reduced-price lunches—a variable often
used in education research to estimate poverty at schools.  We found a similar relationship between
poverty and AP pass rates. Because the Office of Civil Rights does not regulate
access to programs by low-income students, we obtained data on free- or
reduced-price lunches from the National Center
for Education Statistics.

If the programs and courses in this data were available to all students,
there would be no relationship between poverty and the proportion of students
in those programs. But our analysis
found that in some states, more than half of the change in enrollment in
certain programs can be explained by an increase in the percentage of poor
students. That means that higher- poverty schools do not have the same access
to programs.

For example, in Oklahoma, for every 10-point increase in the percent of
low-income students, the percentage of students enrolled in AP drops by three
points, on average.

In Massachusetts, for every 1-point increase in the percent of low-income
students, the AP pass rate drops by six points.

In many states with little relationship between advanced programs and
poverty, specific policies had been put in place to require widespread access
to those programs.

For more information about our analysis, please contact Jennifer LaFleur, the Director of Computer-Assisted Reporting.