Coalition: Colorado making progress to close racial gaps in health, education but more work remains

Black and Latino students in Colorado still lag behind their white peers in academic performance and healthiness, but the gaps separating the different groups have shrunk in the last three years, according to a new report.

The 2017 Race for Results report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation highlights state-level disparities between different racial and ethnic groups — white, black, Latino, Native American and Asian/Pacific Islander — based on a variety of factors. Those measures include the number of children with a normal birth weight, how many fourth graders are reading proficiently, graduation rates and household incomes.

A coalition of child advocacy, social justice and education groups used the report’s release to call on state lawmakers to do more to help level the playing field for all Colorado students.

“In national rankings of child well-being, Colorado often shows up as average,” Kelly Causey, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said in a statement. “But our state’s average ranking hides the wide disparities we see in child well-being when we look at outcomes by race and ethnicity.”

In the study, each racial or ethnic group receives a composite score from 1 — the lowest score — to 1,000.

Here are the scores for Colorado’s students received in 2014 compared to 2017.

Because some of the data reporting has changed during the last three years, such as with graduation rates, the report cautions comparing scores year to year. However, comparing the change in the size of the gaps between groups is appropriate.

The gaps measured by the new report follow a similar pattern in the state’s annual testing data. Earlier this fall Chalkbeat looked at gap in achievement data by race, class, special education needs and whether is learning English as a second language.

Local officials said the gaps narrowed in Colorado in part because fewer black children are living in poverty, low teen birth rates, and conditions improved for young women of all racial and ethnic groups, but they improved faster for young women of color.

The report, the second of its kind, put special emphasis on children from immigrant families. Those children often face additional barriers such as separation from parents. The report’s authors are recommending comprehensive immigration reform that keeps immigrant families together, expanded early childhood programs in communities with high numbers of immigrant families and more economic opportunities for parents.

In Colorado, the Children’s Campaign and its partners will ask state lawmakers during the 2018 legislative session to renew the state’s child care contribution tax credits credit, remove barriers to school lunches and reduced-price lunch shaming, rethink how the state generates revenue and allocates tax dollars to schools.

Lawmakers will also be asked to reconsider a bill that would reform the state’s suspensions and expulsion laws for the state’s youngest students.

“While it’s promising to see those gaps are closing, Colorado has more work to do to remove barriers for children of color and kids living in immigrant families,” Causey said, “which ultimately will benefit all of Colorado’s children.”