DENVER — Friday marks 70 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, outlawing racial segregation in public schools. But seven decades after the historic ruling, researchers say Colorado schools are becoming more segregated – and it goes beyond race.
When Kim Carrazco Strong, and assistant research professor at CU Boulder began looking at segregation in Denver Public Schools, she and her team wanted to keep an open mind.
“We wanted to design it in a way to leave open the possibility that it wasn't happening, we wouldn't find anything,” said Carrazco Strong.
She said what they did find was “surprising” and “disheartening.”
Researchers found DPS schools are triple segregated by race, class, and language.
“I was surprised at how pervasive segregation is in the district,” she said.
The findings were outlined in a 22-page report released last year. They were especially difficult for her research partner Craig Peña.
Back in the early 1970s, his family joined a class action lawsuit challenging Denver schools over segregation.
That case resulted in another landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Keyes v. School District Number One, Denver, which resulted in two decades of busing to integrate schools in the district.
In 1995, a federal judge determined the district had eliminated segregation to the extent possible.
But the findings from the study show Denver has backslided.
“Fifty years later, it breaks my heart,” said Peña. “Our kids deserve better.”
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero said the findings were painful.
“It's not a result of the action of this current administration, although I am going to own it," Marrero said after the report was released last year. “I also think that it's a series of local, regional, and societal-wide issues that have caused it. We all have suspicions. I definitely have some ideas in terms of what could be the causal factors, but I think that this is the necessary step forward.”
Carrazco Strong said students from marginalized communities – Black, Hispanic, English learners, and those experiencing poverty -- are more likely to suffer if they attend a segregated school due to a lack of resources.
"We are in a situation in which we know resources and opportunities are not equitably distributed across the population, and some populations have much greater access to resources and opportunities,” said Carrazco Strong.
A new study from Stanford and the University of Southern California researchers shows segregation isn’t just a problem for DPS.
Public schools across Colorado and the country have seen an increase in racial and economic segregation over the past three decades.
“School segregation levels are high, troubling, and rising in large districts,” said Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford University. “These findings should sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”
"Now that we know what's happening, we need to implement policy solutions,” said Carrazco Strong. “We need to implement solutions both at the local and the national level”
She said that doesn't necessarily mean the focus should be on changing school demographics in an attempt to achieve a perfect balance.
“I don't know if number parity for the sake of parity is necessarily the answer,” she said. “I don't think white students have any superpower, that sitting next to them is going to rub off and improve schools. I don't think that's the situation. I really think it has to do with resource allocation."
She said policymakers should defer to marginalized communities, who are more likely to be impacted.
Carrazco Strong said Peña are now working on a follow-up study that should be released later this year.
