Nonprofit investigative news outlet ProPublica has compiled a database that explores racial disparities in public and charter school systems across the country.
Most of the data comes from a US Department of Education program called Civil Rights Data Collection, formerly the Elementary and Secondary School Survey. See more about ProPublica’s data and methodology here.
The database was designed to help answer two main questions:
- Opportunity: Are white students more likely to be in an AP class compared with black students?
- Discipline: Are black students more likely to be suspended compared with white students?
Pennsylvania was ranked the 5th highest in terms of the likelihood for a black student to be disciplined compared to a white student (5.6x) and as the 6th highest in terms of likelihood for a white student to be in an AP course compared to a black student (2.3x).
Of Lebanon County school districts, Lebanon School District is the only which is not majority white (63% of the district’s students are Hispanic compared to 28% white). In Lebanon School District white students are 6.9 times as likely as Hispanic students to be enrolled in at least one AP class. In all the districts, black and Hispanic students were more than 3x as likely to be suspended than white students.
Explore the project here, or use the links below to see data for specific school districts.