LEARN TOGETHER, LIVE TOGETHER: AN A+ ORANGE A CALL TO INTEGRATE PAPER DENVER’S SCHOOLS FEBRUARY 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A+ Colorado would like to acknowledge Alan Gottlieb of Write.Edit.Think.LLC. for his time and thought-leadership on this report. We would also like to thank Piton Foundation and Gates Family Foundation for their support of this report. We thank Brian Eschbacher, Executive Director of Planning and Enrollment Services at Denver Public Schools, and Sara Baris, Senior Manager of Planning and Analysis at Denver Public Schools for their help navigating and providing data. We appreciate the work of the Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education who took a lead in the conversation about school segregation “Unless our children begin to by commissioning the Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee. We also extend learn together, there is little gratitude to the community members who served on the Strengthening Neighborhoods hope that our people will ever Committee and provided leadership around how to integrate more Denver schools. learn to live together.” We are grateful to community members who -Supreme Court Justice provided insight into their experience with integration, including Bill Kurtz, DSST; Thurgood Marshall Rosemary Rodriguez, former Director, Denver Public Schools Board of Education; Andrew Romero, All in Denver; and Laura Wilson Phelan, Kindred. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction | 3 Opportunities and Challenges | 8 II. Does Integration Lift All Kids? | 9 Benefits Beyond Test Scores | 12 Integration Equals Preparation | 13 Learning Together | 14 Living Together | 15 III. Integrating More Denver Schools | 17 Seeking Opportunities | 18 Models That Attract | 19 IV. A Call to Action | 21 District Policy Recommendations | 21 School Policy Recommendations | 23 Conclusion | 23 V. Appendix A | 24 VI. Endnotes | 25 2 INTRODUCTION In the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education more racially integrated. And while DPS did not case, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl break out test scores by race or socioeconomic Warren wrote that “in the field of public education status in the 1960s and 1970s, the achievement the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. gaps between predominantly minority schools Separate educational facilities are inherently and predominantly white schools pre-busing were unequal.” 50 percentage points or higher.1 Since busing ended, racial achievement gaps continue to be The Brown case dealt specifically with schools that amongst the largest in the state.2 were segregated by race. Reams of subsequent research have shown that the same holds true Court-ordered busing also led to massive white for schools where students are separated based flight to the suburbs. And when a federal judge on their families’ socioeconomic status. Denver’s ended mandatory busing in 1995, a decision by the roughly 25-year experience with court-ordered, school board to return to neighborhood schools involuntary school integration delivered mixed meant that Denver’s schools resegregated results. Keyes v. School District No. 1 brought according to housing patterns almost overnight. court-ordered busing to Denver in 1973. The Keyes case resulted in some schools that were Figure 1. Percent of Students in Schools with 90-100% Students of Color White Students 80% Latinx Students Busing ends after Black Students 70% court ruling in 1995 60% 50% 40% 30% Percent of DPS Students Percent 20% 10% 0% 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Note: Chart expands on data from Chungmei Lee, “Denver Public Schools: Resegregation, Latino Style.” Harvard University: The Civil Rights Project. (January 2006). 3 Learn Together, Live Together - February 2018 Figure 2. Percent of Students Served in DPS Schools Based on Concentration of Poverty 100,000 100% Students attend a school that is: more than 90% FRL Percent of DPS Students Eligible for Free or of DPS Students Percent 80-90% FRL 80,000 80% 70-80% FRL Reduced Price Lunch Reduced 60-70% FRL 60,000 60% 50-60% FRL 40-50% FRL 30-40% FRL 40,000 40% 20-30% FRL Number of DPS Students 10-20% FRL less than 10% FRL 20,000 20% Percent of DPS Students Eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch 0 0% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Analysis provided by Denver Public Schools In fact, by some accounts, Denver Public Schools Ashley Elementary provides an example of a (DPS) is as segregated by race and class today as school that does not match its neighborhood. it has ever been. As Figure 2 shows, in 2016 26% Sandwiched between the Stapleton elementary of students enrolled in a school where more than enrollment zone, Park Hill, and Montclair, Ashley’s 90% students qualified for free or reduced price student body is 10% white, 21% black, and 65% lunch, compared to 11% in 2003.3 Looking by race Latinx. Yet the surrounding neighborhood looks in Figure 3, black students are far less racially quite different: within a two-mile radius of Ashley isolated than they were in 2000, Latinx and white elementary (only including Denver families), 50% students are slightly more so. of children were white, 17% were black, and 21% were Latinx.5 As Figure 5 shows, this pattern holds Understanding segregation is a complicated true in both charters and district-run schools across endeavor, influenced by housing patterns, the city. Some important distinctions arise however institutional boundaries, and neighborhood when looking by governance: white students are composition. A recent analysis from The Brookings more likely to be overrepresented relative to the Institution looks at over and underrepresentation neighborhood in which they live in district-run of specific racial and ethnic students in schools schools than in charter schools. Black students relative to their neighborhood—a much narrower are much more likely to be overrepresented in and sharper look than other measures that charters than in district-run schools, and are also look at school demographics relative to district- more likely to be underrepresented in traditional wide demographics.4 In an analysis of the data public schools. Combined, this shows that there shown in Figure 4, white students are more are patterns of racial imbalance and segregation likely to be underrepresented in Denver schools in schools across the city and is not wholly an relative to the neighborhood around the school, issue of governance structure. black and Latinx students are more likely to be overrepresented in Denver schools relative to the It’s tragic that 63 years after the Brown decision, surrounding neighborhood. cities like Denver are still struggling with this issue. And for Denver in particular, this is a 4 Learn Together, Live Together - February 2018 Figure 3. Percent of Students in Schools More than 75% Their Same Race or Ethnicity 60% 2000 55% 56% 56% 52% 54% 50% 2004 2008 40% 2012 30% 2016 20% 15% 14% 13% 12% 10% 9% Percent of DPS Students Percent 6% 5% 6% 0% 0% 0% Black Students Latinx Students White Students Analysis by A+ Colorado, based on data from The Brookings Institution pivotal moment. Demographic changes have Denver’s schools, and making them centers of been fast-paced in Denver; as seen in Figure 6, inclusion, where all cultures and communities are former strongholds of the black community and honored, and everyone feels they have a strong Latinx community are changing as white families voice in key decisions. The report explores the move in, and families of color move outside the current realities of integration in Denver through increasingly expensive city limits.6 analyzing data and demographic trends, while considering the opinions of thought-leaders in While the race story is more complicated and the local community. The report will also look at less linear than the patterns of socioeconomic how some other cities have created successful segregation across the city, it is no less important integration programs, and how Denver might find to understand and make concerted efforts to similar opportunities. address, such that students are respected and valued in every school. DPS leadership has made integration a priority over the past three years. In fact, the Board This report will present the most compelling of Education recently created a broad-based arguments for socioeconomically integrating Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee, Figure 4. Percent of Denver Schools That Are Over or Underrepresentative of a Student Demographic Group (Race/Ethnicity) Relative to the Neighborhood Surrounding the School 40% 35% Where Students Are Overrepresented Relative to Neighborhood Demographics 30% Where Students Are Underrepresented Relative to 27% Neighborhood Demographics 20% 14% 15% 10% Percent of DPS Students Percent 6% 4% 0% Black Students Latinx Students White Students Analysis by A+ Colorado, based on data from The Brookings Institution 5 Learn Together, Live Together - February 2018 Figure 5. Percent of Denver Schools That Are Over or Underrepresentative of a Student Demographic Group (Race/Ethnicity) Relative to the Neighborhood Surrounding the School by School Governance 50% 48% Charter: Where Students are Overrepresented Compared to Neighborhood Demographics District-run School: Where Students are Overrepresented Compared to Neighborhood Demographics 40% Charter: Where Students are Underrepresented Compared to Neighborhood Demographics District-run School: Where Students are Underrepresented Compared to Neighborhood Demographics 31% 30% 30% 20% 18% Percent of DPS Schools Percent 15% 15% 15% 13% 10% 7% 4% 3% 3% 0% Black Students Latinx Students White Students Analysis by A+ Colorado, based on data from The Brookings Institution charged with making recommendations to the board on how to promote integration in the city’s schools. We recognize we are at a unique moment in time: there are clear structural changes underway in our communities, and the Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee was convened by DPS to consider options to address the opportunity. This report considers and reviews the policy and practice recommendations by the task force and provides additional thoughts on how to address this essential issue.