DPS Board Elections Part 2: Think Achievement Gaps Are Growing? Think Again.

80238 is examining the arguments made by "anti-corporate reform" school board candidates that the achievement gaps in DPS are increasing.   In Part 1 80238 showed that Denver Public Schools is experiencing a widening income gap or equity gap between students of color and white students, with income levels of whites growing and incomes for African American and Hispanic students on the decline.  The growing equity gap could explain or even justify growing achievement gaps, if indeed they are growing.

No one will argue with the fact that achievement gaps between students of color and white students in DPS are unacceptably large.  Denver is not unique, achievement gaps have been the driving force behind education reform for the entire 21st century. The question is whether reform efforts have had any impact on those gaps.

Closing achievement gaps is a tricky business.  Education reforms can result in overall improvements in student performance, even improvements in performance for different economic or racial groups, and still see achievement gaps grow.  For example, we can see improvements in student success for Hispanic students, but greater improvements for white students.  Student achievement can rise, but achievement gaps can grow.

Even those critical of the district have to recognize that improvements in student learning have occurred.  Those critical of the district have referenced a Center for Reinventing Public Education report showing Denver as having one of the higher achievement gaps in the country.  The critics don't recognize that the same report revealed that Denver achieved some of the greatest improvements in student learning relative to their own state,.  So indeed achievement is improving, but are all student groups benefiting?

To provide some insight into this question 80238 looked at the performance of students of color and white students on the state TCAP/CSAP exams in two areas:  3rd grade reading and 10th grade math.

3rd Grade Reading: All Student Groups are Improving and Gaps Have Decreased
Third grade reading is an important benchmark for educators. Research has shown that students who are reading at grade level by 3rd grade have a much greater likelihood of succeeding in K-12 overall.

The good news in Denver is that 3rd grade reading scores are on the rise and achievement gaps are declining, despite growing economic inequity in Denver.

When you consider that almost 90% of Hispanic students are in low-income homes and 82% of African Americans are low-income, it is somewhat impressive that improvements in reading scores have kept pace with white students, who have seen their family incomes rise.  There is no question that the gaps remain too large, but in the end it is positive to see growth on this very important indicator of student achievement.

10th Grade Math:  Students of Color are Improving, White Students Are Improving More
10th grade math was chosen because access and success in higher education is highly correlated with success in college-level math.  Students placed in remedial math, rarely earn college degrees.

All student groups have shown improvements in 10th grade math. In particular, Hispanic students have doubled the percent who are proficient in math. You may not think that means much when the baseline is 7.1%, but voters must remember Hispanics are far and away the largest population of students in the district. The 7% improvement in student proficiency among Hispanics means that 205 more Hispanic students in 2014 are proficient in math, than would not have been in 2008.  Still not impressed, well the 14% improvement in proficiency rates for white students only amounts to additional 134 students scoring at proficient in 2014, when compared to 2008 success rates.

The achievement gap has increased between white students and Hispanic or African American students, but students of color have made progress.  Unfortunately, the percent who are proficient is still abysmally low.

Are the reforms made by DPS and the DPS School Board a failure?  Well it depends on how you measure success. Students of color, while seeing their incomes drop and white students' incomes rise, are holding their own with regard to improvements in achievement.  The problem is that the gap remains far too large.

Now the question turns to whether reforms proposed by those challenging the incumbents can actually do any better.  Next time 80238 will look at the call for neighborhood schools.

2015 DPS Board Elections. Part 1: Achievement Gap or Equity Gap

The Denver Public Schools School Board Elections offer voters clear choices between candidates supporting the current DPS agenda and those who want to take the district in a new direction.  Denver is a target of outside campaign funding from groups who are "pro-education reform" vs. those who categorize themselves as "anti-corporate reform."  "Education reformers" are supportive of choice in education, particularly charter schools, and have been largely supportive of the common core state standards and the new PARCC assessments for tracking student achievement. Education reformers largely support Denver's current agenda. "Anti-corporate reformers" are critical of what they call the "privatization of public education" through the growth in charter schools and the use of standardized tests. In Denver, "anti-corporate reformers argue for changes in school choice boundaries to more "neighborhood schools" vs. attendance zones that are drawn across neighborhoods for the purpose of providing broader choice for neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income families and students of color.

Over the next several days 80238 will look closely at some of the issues in the election and the arguments being made by those wanting a change in direction.

A primary argument made by anti-corporate reform candidate the district maintains is that Denver has one of largest achievement gaps among urban districts.  The evidence cited by reformers is a recent report by the Center for Reinventing Public Education.  Some candidates have argued that the district's achievement gap has grown from 2005 to 2015 during the tenures of Michael Bennett and Tom Boasberg as DPS superintendent.

To understand achievement gaps, you need to understand equity gaps between students of color and white families.

Growth in Enrollments Driven by Hispanic Students and White Students

Over the past 10 years, the Denver Public Schools have seen dramatic increases in enrollment.  This is particularly noteworthy for Stapleton residents because of the significant growth among white students.  However, it is also important to notice that the district saw a much higher numeric increase in enrollments among Hispanic students.

Economic Equity Gaps Between Students of Color and White Families Are Growing

As enrollments have increased, the district has seen economic gaps widen. While the percent of students on Free and Reduced Price Lunch among white students has not changed, students of color are significantly poorer than they were 2005.

This graph does not begin to capture the gaps in income between students of color and white students.  We know that in Stapleton alone white families are among some of the highest income families in the country.   In addition, we know that 87% of the 51,000 Hispanic students are low income and 82% of African American families are low income.

Bottom line is that in the past 10 years the gaps in income equity have grown due to dropping incomes among families of color in the district and the rapid growth in the incomes among new white families that have moved into the district.

Those that argue that achievement gaps are growing should consider the unique challenge of having to deal with widening income gaps.  

These changes are challenging the district to meet the needs of the growing high income white population AND the increasingly poor minority populations.   This has manifested itself in the battles over attendance zones and the demands of white families to have high quality schools near their homes.  Later we will look at the arguments over neighborhood schools and whether it provides any solutions.

Next we take a hard look at achievement gaps in the district.