Denver Public Schools is the largest school district in the state with more than 45,000 students, or 51.8% of its student body, who identify as Hispanic or Latino. However, the recently released La Raza Report, commissioned by the distict found that Latino students are struggling.
The report says studentsare not receiving equity when it comes to resources and there are too few Latino teachers and leaders. It also said Latino culture was perpetually undervalued.
Chalkbeat Colorado Reporter Melanie Asmar joined KUNC's Michael Lyle Jr. to discuss the report and its 35 recommendations ..
"One recommendation is for the district to coordinate with local foundations, nonprofit organizations, colleges and universities to establish programs to tutor students and to help them with their academics," said Asmar. "There's another that talks about what is called the Seal of Biliteracy. It's a seal that students can get on their diploma, certifying that they're fluent in at least two languages."
Asmar also said the report identified a "brown ceiling."
"This is a barrier that specifically exists for Denver Public School employees," said Asmar. "It says that employees told the researchers who wrote the report that Latino culture is not valued in DPS. That DPS suppresses the cultural assets that Latino staff bring to the district, and that it's hard for them to advance."
To mitigate those issues, Asmar said officials are looking into methods to ensure that resources are made available for Latino students and to increase diversity amongst its staff.
"They've talked about launching what they're calling a Latinx student success team," said Asmar. "DPS previously launched a Black student success team. So this team is really looking at what are the best practices for Black students to help them succeed in school. I imagine that the Latinx success team will take the same approach."
Asmar said the district plans to hire someone to lead the Latinx success team within the next two weeks.
