Group: Denver Public Schools Could Do Better With Integration
DENVER (CBS4)- One group claims that Denver Public Schools could do better at integration.
According to the website for A+ Colorado, they are trying to increase student achievement across the state.
The group claims that DPS is lacking in integration in the report "Learn Together, Live Together: A Call To Integrate Denver's Schools."
According to the group, since 2000, more than half of Denver's Latino student population has attended a school with more than 75 percent of the students of the same ethnicity.
The report also shows that in 2016, 26 percent of students enrolled in a school where more than 90 percent of students qualified for free or reduced price lunch, compared to just 11 percent in 2003.
"Multiple studies from across the country have shown that schools with a focus on having racial and economically integrated classrooms benefit all students whether low-income or affluent, white students or students of color. Integrating schools is a critical strategy for closing our massive achievement gaps," said A+ CEO Van Schoales in a statement.
The organization suggests using the school choice process to reserve seats for students from under-represented populations.
DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg agrees that students do learn better in a diverse environment.
"They know that they learn more, they learn better, when their classrooms are diverse. Our kids are growing up in a diverse city, a diverse country and they prize that diversity, they treasure that diversity, and they want to be in classrooms where they have that opportunity to share and to learn and to grow, and having diverse and integrated classrooms is a critical part of that," said Boasberg.
A+ Colorado will host several panel conversations around Denver, including NE Denver at the Vickers Boys and Girls Club located at 3333 Holly Street on March 7 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and NW Denver at the Highland Recreation Centerlocated at 2880 Oceola Street on March 21 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.