Colorado school districts should revise their school attendance zones at least every four years with a 鈥渃ivil rights focus.鈥� State lawmakers should increase funding to transport students to and from school. And attorneys, advocates, and community organizations should embrace the right to sue over school assignments that increase racial segregation.

Those are among the recommendations in a new report from the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 鈥溾�� concludes that the way Colorado draws school attendance boundaries and assigns students to schools mirrors segregated housing patterns and results in low-income families having less access to high-quality schools.

鈥淭his segregation fuels a widespread belief that schools serving predominantly white and affluent students are inherently better than those serving predominantly students of color or low-income families,鈥� said.

from local and national and have . While some local school officials, such as the Denver school board, , the federal Trump administration that could trigger civil rights investigations.

The Colorado Advisory Committee is a 10-person group of bipartisan appointed volunteers. Each state has an advisory committee that produces reports on civil rights issues ranging from housing discrimination to voting rights to the use of excessive force by police officers.

In its latest report, the Colorado committee found that 鈥渢housands 鈥� perhaps tens of thousands 鈥� of Colorado students are likely to be assigned to schools in violation鈥� of a federal law that says assigning a student to a school outside their neighborhood is unlawful 鈥渋f it has segregating effects.鈥�

The committee鈥檚 recommended solutions attempt to balance strong support for neighborhood schools with allowing families to choose the best school for their child. School choice, or the ability for a student to apply to attend any public school, .

The committee advocated for what it called 鈥渃ontrolled choice,鈥� which it said could mean that popular schools reserve seats for students who live outside the neighborhood or that schools give priority admission to non-neighborhood students who live the closest.

To produce its report, the committee held hearings in 2023 to gather input from national experts including university professors, the author of a book on school attendance zones, and representatives from think tanks across the political spectrum.

The committee also convened a group of 10 local experts including Brenda Dickhoner from the conservative advocacy organization Ready Colorado; Kathy Gebhardt, who was then a member of the Boulder Valley school board and now sits on the State Board of Education; former Aurora Public Schools superintendent Rico Munn; and Nicholas Martinez, a former teacher who heads the education reform organization Transform Education Now.

The committee鈥檚 other recommendations include:

• The civil rights divisions of the federal education and justice departments should review options for enforcing 鈥渢he permissible and impermissible use of race in drawing attendance boundaries and setting school assignment policies.鈥�
• Colorado lawmakers should correct 鈥渢he systemic racial and ethnic disparities鈥� caused by the state鈥檚 school transportation system, which does not require school districts to provide transportation to students who use school choice.
• State lawmakers should improve Colorado鈥檚 school choice system, including by adopting a uniform school enrollment window statewide and providing families with more information about schools鈥� discipline policies, class sizes, and other factors.
• Colorado school districts should revise their school attendance zones and student assignment policies at least every four years and 鈥渃onsider racial and ethnic integration as part of the rezoning process.鈥�

鈥淩edrawing school boundaries every few years can help prevent segregation from becoming entrenched while still allowing students to maintain a sense of stability in their educational environment,鈥� the committee鈥檚 policy brief said.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Roughly a mile away, the demographics at Billingsville, another K-5, sat in stark contrast. Located in the Grier Heights neighborhood 鈥� an old farming community founded by a former slave 鈥� Billingsville was a high-poverty school serving an all-Black student population.

鈥淲e operated in silos that I never understood as a principal,鈥� Hash said.

Portable classrooms on Cotswold鈥檚 overcrowded campus were evidence of the school鈥檚 popularity, while Billingsville occupied a brand new building with room to spare.

In 2018, the two schools became part of a unique experiment that was unlike any student assignment plan families had ever been part of. The schools would merge, but instead of moving into one building, the early grades would occupy Billingsville, and Cotswold would serve grades 3 through 5. 

Almost immediately, under the new arrangement, Billingsville went from having one white student to being 40% white, Hash said. Both schools now offer the rigorous IB program and have a more racially and socioeconomically balanced population. Across both schools, less than half of the students live in poverty, 41% students are Black, about 17% are Hispanic and 34% are white. 

鈥淥ur school looks like the world. Our school looks like Charlotte,鈥� Hash said. 

The student assignment method, called a pairing, is not new. In fact, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district employed the same design in the 1970s following a that required the district to desegregate. But the model has been underutilized as an integration strategy, experts say. 

Now, shows that such mergers could reduce racial and ethnic isolation by as much as 60% in 200 large school districts nationwide. At the same time, the method would increase parents鈥� commute to school by only a few minutes 鈥� not a small matter for families managing busy drop-off聽and pick-up schedules.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do 鈥� is highlight how student assignment policy changes might help produce environments that can reduce the concentration of different forms of disadvantage,鈥� said Nabeel Gillani, an assistant professor at Northeastern University in Boston, and the lead researcher on the project. 鈥淒isadvantage can prevent young people and their families from reaching their potential.鈥�

Under a , schools are no longer permitted to consider race when pursuing integration goals. But blending schools with different socioeconomic profiles can still result in more racially diverse schools. In a moment when leaders of the ruling party in Washington want to 鈥溾�� and argue that 鈥�,鈥� Gillani urges districts not to back off efforts to create more integrated schools. He said he hopes that the Trump administration鈥檚 warnings against any emphasis on racial diversity 鈥渨ill light a stronger fire under more districts鈥� to consider pairing, 鈥渋nstead of scaring them away.鈥�

Along with the research paper, released Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences鈥� Nexus journal, Gillani and doctoral student Madison Landry created an that shows how pairing, and sometimes tripling, would change school demographics in communities across the country. 

For example, in Plano, Texas, 26% of the students at Shepard Elementary are non-white, according to 2022 data, while 83% of students at Sigler, about six minutes away, are non-white. 

Pairing the two schools would more than double the percentage of students of color at Shepard and decrease the percentage at Sigler to 52.9%, bringing both closer to the districtwide figure of 65%.

鈥楢 desired racial balance鈥�

Across the country, data shows that schools have grown increasingly divided by race, ethnicity and family income. A from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that more than a third of students attended schools in 2020-21 where 75% or more students were of a single race or ethnicity. , however, shows that students who attend integrated schools have higher test scores and lower dropout rates. 

In 2017, Billingsville earned a D rating from the state. Now the combined Billingsville-Cotswold earns a C, but also met its academic growth target, a measure that captures progress from year to year. 

Such results are one reason why the Biden administration in 2023 took steps to encourage districts to implement strategies like pairing. The U.S. Department of Education awarded $14 million to states, districts and charter networks working to create more integrated schools. 

Gillani has advised one of the recipients, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools in North Carolina, as it develops a redistricting plan. While the plans don鈥檛 involve pairing, leaders are still redrawing boundaries with an eye toward reducing socioeconomic isolation across the district. 

Other recipients included a Rhode Island charter network, the Oakland Unified School District in California and the Maryland Department of Education.

A department spokeswoman said she had no information about whether the program would continue, but one advocate for school integration doubts it, considering the administration鈥檚 opposition to diversity efforts. 

鈥淚 think it’s unlikely that they would run another competition for that grant under this administration,鈥� said Halley Potter, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. 

In fact, the department鈥檚 Feb. 14 鈥溾�� letter warned districts against taking steps to 鈥渁chieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity.鈥� 

But 鈥渟ocioeconomic diversity has its own independent value,鈥� said Richard Kahlenberg, director of housing policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 鈥淭here is a wealth of research to suggest that students benefit from attending a mixed-income school 鈥� even if there is zero impact on racial diversity.鈥�

The Supreme Court has also upheld race-neutral policies. Within the past year, the court has declined to hear two cases, one from Boston and one from Fairfax County, Virginia, that challenged efforts to create more diversity in highly selective schools.

鈥淭he judiciary will almost surely uphold socioeconomic integration plans at the end of the day,鈥� Kahlenberg said. 

Even though the federal grant program was small, Potter said she hopes the efforts would offer 鈥渟ome important proof points鈥� for how to encourage integration at a time when many districts are considering mergers because of declining enrollment. 

鈥淭here really is a chance to have a win-win situation when it’s structured right,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd when there’s community engagement to work through these hard conversations.鈥�

鈥榃hy are they changing everything?鈥�

One benefit of pairing 鈥� over a typical redistricting plan that reassigns students to new schools 鈥� is that it doesn鈥檛 split up peers from the same grade level. They might relocate to a different building, but they stay with their friends.

That doesn鈥檛 make it easy, however. Families often have multiple children in the same elementary school and arrange afterschool programs and child care around that location. 

鈥淥ur first reaction was 鈥極h gosh, why are they changing everything?鈥� 鈥� said Brantley Alvey, whose oldest daughter, now in seventh grade, went through the merger.  Her youngest is in fifth grade at the school. 鈥淲hen we bought our house, we said 鈥榃e love that our kids are going to walk to elementary school for six years.鈥� 鈥�

Parents also had questions over how the makeup of their children鈥檚 classrooms would change after the merger.

鈥淲ould they be the only child of color or would they be the only child that wasn’t of color?鈥� Hash recalled. 鈥淭hose were real conversations that we had to tackle.鈥�

To help parents manage morning and afternoon routines, the schools have staggered bell schedules. The district also spent the entire 2017-18 school year preparing families for the change. Hash organized campus beautification days and concerts to help families from the two schools get to know each other. She said she had to view the merger of communities not just from an instructional and management perspective, but with a 鈥渕icro-political lens.鈥�

鈥淵ou have to lean in with how we鈥檙e alike versus how we鈥檙e different,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is a model that can be replicated across the United States, not just in Charlotte.鈥�

Hash is the principal for both campuses, dividing her time between the two. Because of the pairing, Alvey said, the school has benefited from more resources 鈥� like two full-time art teachers, and more playground equipment and library books. For parent leaders, however, organizing carnivals and other family events has often been 鈥渓abor intensive,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’re constantly feeling like we have to duplicate our efforts on two different campuses.鈥� 

While the positives, she said, have outweighed the negatives, the one-school, two-campus model won鈥檛 be in place much longer. will eventually bring all K-5 students together in a newly built Cotswold, while the Billingsville site becomes a district Montessori school. Grier Heights families will be able to choose which school they want their children to attend.

Still, Alvey said the pairing has benefited her children and helped to break down barriers between the two neighborhoods 鈥� especially since both schools feed into the same middle and high school.

鈥淚t’s not just low-income kids that benefit from diversity; it’s the higher income kids as well,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want our kids to be comfortable with people from different backgrounds and different cultures. That’s only going to better prepare them to be good citizens of the world.鈥�

A new report from the  released this week studied the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on disparities in reading, mathematics, and science achievement among racial and ethnic groups of elementary students in the United States.

Among other things, the study looked at which SES factors best explain existing achievement gaps, along with disparities among high-achieving students. The authors analyzed two sets of data from the federal Early Child Longitudinal Study, from 1998-99 and 2010-11.

The study’s resulting analysis “a broad set of family SES factors explains a substantial portion of racial achievement gaps: between 34 and 64 percent of the Black-white gap and between 51 and 77 percent of the Hispanic-white gap, depending on the subject and grade level.”

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“Racial achievement gaps in schools are well documented and remain a significant cause of concern in education. Troubling too is that the role of socioeconomic disparities in mediating these gaps remains unresolved,” the “While SES accounts for much of the racial achievement disparities, closing these gaps requires a comprehensive approach, including improving school quality and supporting family stability.”

The institute’s study used a broad set of measures of family background, including parents’ education, family finances, household structure, and “household opportunity factors.” The latter measure refers to academic, enrichment, and familial activities.

The authors of the study, University of Albany’s Eric Hengyu Hu and Paul L. Morgan, identified the following key findings from their analysis:

• Racial achievement gaps decrease significantly when controlling for the SES factors (though SES explains more of the Hispanic-white gap than the Black-white gap).
• Of all the SES factors analyzed, household income best explains the Black-white gap in academic achievement and mother鈥檚 education best explains the Hispanic-white gap.
• SES indicators, and the extent to which they explain racial/ethnic achievement gaps, are stable over time (1998-99 and 2010-11).
• SES also helps explain racial and ethnic excellence gaps (differences in the proportions of student groups within the highest achievement levels). The SES factors explain a larger share of Hispanic-white excellence gaps than Black-white excellence gaps across the board.
• The Black-white achievement gap grows as students age through elementary school, while the Hispanic-white gap shrinks.

Key findings from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s study.

To close such gaps, the authors recommend investments in early childhood education and income supplements, such as expanding child tax credits.

“Because achievement gaps are already evident by elementary school, including as early as kindergarten, investing in high-quality early childhood education programs, especially in underprivileged communities, may be beneficial in mitigating the effects of socioeconomic disparities,” the report says.

In addition to early childhood investments, the authors also propose the following solutions:

• Support programs to help parents earn their high school diplomas or higher education credentials.
• Economic support and financial aid for low-income families.
• Addressing racial and ethnic disparities, including the adoption of 鈥渃urricula that reflect diverse cultures and programs that specifically support underrepresented students,鈥� and student-teacher racial and ethnic matching.

“Whatever the approach, there is no denying the urgency of making the U.S. educational system more equitable,” the report says. “…The time to act is now. By enacting comprehensive and inclusive policies, we can narrow achievement gaps and create a more just educational landscape for the next generation.”

You can download and read the full study .

A look a gaps in North Carolina

Achievement gaps — also known as opportunity or equity gaps — follow national trends in North Carolina.

, following the start of the pandemic, only 51% of students tested as grade-level proficient. Proficiency was even lower among historically disadvantaged students, at 33% for Black students, 40% for Hispanic students, and 35% for economically disadvantaged students.

While those rates slightly increased during , gaps and low proficiency rates persist.

More highlights from the report

Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Michael J. Petrilli wrote in the report’s foreword that “the vast racial disparities in socioeconomic conditions and prenatal and early-life health experiences explain the achievement gaps we see between racial and ethnic groups, at least at school entry.”

Citing by economists Roland Fryer and Steven Levitt, “Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School,” Petrilli writes that this suggests that “universal, race-neutral interventions designed to improve the academic, social, economic, and health conditions of the poor would lift all boats and would also narrow racial gaps.”

Using data from the federal Early Child Longitudinal Study — data cited by Fryer and Levitt, along with more recent data — Petrilli said the report aimed to answer a few questions:

• Had the relationship between socioeconomic achievement gaps and racial/ethnic achievement gaps shifted?
• Was the Black-white gap still growing during elementary school?
• And how did all of this look for the white-Hispanic gap and for subjects beyond just reading and math?

Here is a look at the measures explored in the institute’s paper.

The institute鈥檚 study found that family socioeconomic factors explain more 鈥渙f the Black-white achievement gap in first grade reading than in other subjects and grade levels.鈥� The report proposes this may be the case because parents play a larger role in teaching language skills to young children than they do for math and science.

鈥淭he advantages of high SES鈥攁nd disadvantages of low SES鈥攖hus show up more for students鈥� initial reading skills than for their math and science ones,” the report says. “As students get older and benefit from classroom instruction, their relative advantages and disadvantages start to matter less.”

However, while the gap narrows with age, there is still a gap. According to the report, this likely means “we still haven鈥檛 closed the ‘school quality gap’ between Black students and their white peers.”

As mentioned above, the report also found that family socioeconomic factors 鈥渆xplain more of the Hispanic-white achievement gap than the Black-white achievement gap.鈥�

According to the report, this could be because Hispanic children in Spanish-speaking families 鈥渉ave latent potential that is obscured by their lack of English skills.鈥�

The report also suggests that non-socioeconomic factors, racism, and bias affect Black children at higher rates than their Hispanic peers.

“For lower-income Black children, who are more likely to experience deep, persistent poverty than other groups, the combination of ‘adverse childhood experiences’ might exacerbate inequalities,” the report says. “And for middle class Black children, bias, stereotype threat, and related factors might be especially at play. This might also be why the Black-white achievement gap grows over the course of elementary school, while the Hispanic-white gap shrinks.”

Petrilli concludes: “When it comes to the interplay between race, poverty, and schooling, the honest read is that it鈥檚 complicated. What鈥檚 undeniable, though, is that much hard work remains, especially when it comes to providing effective schools to marginalized students, especially those who are Black. Let鈥檚 keep at it.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

In 2020, the Fairfax district in northern Virginia changed its admissions criteria to better reflect the racial makeup of students in the county. Last May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit .

The Supreme Court offered no explanation for its refusal to hear the case. But from Justice Samuel Alito, backed by Justice Clarence Thomas, called the lower court鈥檚 ruling in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, 鈥渁 virus that may spread if not promptly eliminated.鈥� 

鈥淲hat the Fourth Circuit majority held, in essence, is that intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe,鈥� Alito wrote. 鈥淭his reasoning is indefensible, and it cries out for correction.鈥�

The Supreme Court鈥檚 earlier ruling against Harvard and the University of North Carolina over affirmative action-based admissions left some districts in limbo over whether K-12 integration efforts based on family income, rather than race, could pass legal muster. Echoing arguments similar to those that Students for Fair Admissions made against affirmative action in higher education, the Fairfax parents said admissions changes at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology make it more difficult for Asian-American students to be accepted. 

Before Fairfax changed its admissions rules, about three-fourths of the school鈥檚 students were Asian Americans. District leaders eliminated a rigorous test for applicants and a $100 fee. And they reserved seats at the school for the top 1.5% of 8th graders in each middle school. Coalition for TJ said the new rules were racially biased because the proportion of Asian American students accepted dropped to 54%.

鈥淭he Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions,鈥� Joshua Thompson, a senior attorney with the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday. The firm represents the Fairfax parents who sued. 鈥淪chools should evaluate students as individuals, not as groups based on racial identity.鈥� 

But some integration experts say the court鈥檚 decision not to hear the case confirms that using socioeconomic status in admissions is constitutional. Richard Kahlenberg, a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, called the court鈥檚 denial 鈥渁 victory for poor and working class students of all races.鈥� On behalf of the plaintiffs in the cases against Harvard and UNC, he testified in favor of socioeconomic integration, but said Tuesday that both that earlier opinion and the court鈥檚 denial of the TJ case fit with an ongoing public consensus in 鈥渟upport of racial diversity, but in opposition to using racial preferences to get there.鈥�

鈥淭he decision of seven justices not to hear the case makes good sense because for three decades, even the most conservative justices have been urging educational institutions to use precisely the kind of race-neutral strategies that Thomas Jefferson High School employed,鈥� he said. 

Supporters of the admissions changes note the current , 3.9, is higher than it was under the previous policy.

鈥淲e have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students,鈥� Karl Frisch, chair of the district鈥檚 board, said in a statement. 鈥淚t guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school.鈥�

The 鈥榖est public schools鈥�

The Supreme Court鈥檚 denial of the TJ appeal is the second blow in three months to Pacific Legal鈥檚 efforts to curb what it sees as discrimination against white and Asian American students in K-12. In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled against the firm鈥檚 clients in a similar case over selective schools in .听

Following the opinion鈥檚 release, Erin Wilcox, another Pacific Legal attorney, said it was disappointing that just six months after the court鈥檚 affirmative action ruling, 鈥渢he First Circuit held 鈥� that it’s perfectly legal for Boston to use racial proxies to determine who is admitted to some of its best public schools.鈥�

Pacific Legal plans to go back to the High Court in the next few weeks to ask the justices to examine many of the same issues it objected to in the TJ case. 

But Stefan Lallinger, executive director at Next100, a progressive think tank affiliated with The Century Foundation, called the First Circuit鈥檚 decision 鈥渁 shot in the arm to districts that understand the value of diversity,鈥� but were left 鈥渃onfused or worse, afraid, to take bold and affirmative steps鈥� after the Supreme Court鈥檚 opinion on Harvard and UNC.

The Boston Public Schools made changes similar to those in Fairfax. The district replaced a merit-based admissions policy for its exclusive 鈥渆xam鈥� schools with one that drew students with high GPAs from all ZIP codes. (The system was later changed to reflect 鈥� small geographic areas within a county.) 

The Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Corp., a nonprofit, sued last year over the policy change, which has led to more Black and Hispanic students attending the schools.

Pacific Legal is also representing plaintiffs suing over criteria for entrance to highly competitive schools in , and . And in January, the firm filed on behalf of a group of New York parents over a statewide that prepares students to study STEM fields in college. The plaintiffs argue that the criteria favors Black, Hispanic, Alaskan Native and American Indian students regardless of their family鈥檚 income.

In Philadelphia, the American First Legal Foundation, another conservative law firm, after the district dropped merit-based application requirements, such as recommendation letters, attendance and test scores, for competitive schools. District leaders moved to in which students from certain ZIP codes receive preference. The system targets neighborhoods with the lowest representation of students who previously accepted offers to attend those schools.听

The case is currently pending in federal district court.