Join Chalkbeat Colorado’s free every day e-newsletter to get the newest reporting from us, plus curated information from different Colorado retailers, delivered to your inbox.
Denver Public Faculties college students are experiencing an “inequitable restoration” from tutorial dips through the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to a brand new report from the Keystone Coverage Middle.
Denver college students from middle- and higher-income households have greater than caught up on studying and writing. In actual fact, their state check scores have been greater within the spring of 2024 than they have been within the spring of 2019, earlier than the pandemic. In 2024, 70% of those college students in grades three by eight met state expectations in studying and writing. That’s up from 2019, when 69% did.
However the check scores of Denver college students from low-income households nonetheless lag behind. Their scores have been decrease in 2024 than in 2019. In 2024, simply 23% of scholars from low-income households in grades three by eight met expectations in studying and writing. In 2019, 27% did.
“The important thing takeaway is that college students from low-income households in DPS have struggled to get better academically when in comparison with their extra prosperous friends,” the report says.
The report makes use of eligibility free of charge or diminished value lunch as a proxy for household earnings degree. Practically two-thirds of Denver college students certified for backed college meals final 12 months.
In a press release, Denver Public Faculties stated it acknowledges that “college students from low-income households face distinctive challenges, and we’re actively offering focused tutorial helps to varsities, nearly all of which serve excessive populations of FRL college students.”
The district stated it additionally provides tutorial help to college students throughout before- and after-school, Saturday college, and summer season college packages. Its six neighborhood hubs assist college students and households with fundamental wants in addition to present social, emotional, bodily, and tutorial help, it stated.
“DPS is dedicated to addressing the inequities in restoration and accelerating the trajectory of our traditionally underserved college students,” the district stated in a press release.
Comparable check rating developments exist for college students of colour and English learners in DPS, the report notes. Denver has traditionally had among the largest check rating gaps within the state.
Denver college students from low-income households additionally noticed greater rating drops between 2019 and 2024 than college students from low-income households in neighboring Jeffco Public Faculties and Aurora Public Faculties, the report says. As well as, the DPS rating drop of 4 proportion factors for college students from low-income households was steeper than the statewide common rating drop of two proportion factors.
In its assertion, DPS famous that the general variety of its college students assembly expectations on state math and literacy assessments elevated in 2024, although it nonetheless hasn’t reached pre-pandemic ranges.
However report writer Van Schoales, senior coverage director on the Keystone Coverage Middle, stated referencing general state check scores, with out disaggregating the scores by household earnings or different demographics, is “completely irresponsible” and “deceptive.”
“It doesn’t inform you what the faculties or districts are doing in an effort to help children,” Schoales stated.
The report concludes that Denver ought to carry again its former college ranking system or create a brand new framework that will shine extra mild on the training of scholars from low-income households.
Denver discarded its color-coded ranking system in 2020 after years of complaints about it being too difficult. The district now makes use of the state’s college ranking system, which is easier.
Whereas each techniques award factors primarily based on how sure teams of scholars rating on state assessments, together with college students from low-income households, Denver’s outdated system set the next bar for these college students. It additionally penalized faculties that had huge gaps between the scores of scholars from low-income households and people from extra prosperous households.
Schoales stated the state’s less complicated ranking system isn’t fine-tuned sufficient to differentiate between faculties which are doing a great job serving college students from low-income households and people that aren’t.
“For those who don’t know what good is, it’s unattainable to know how you can get there,” he stated.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.