Red and Blue or Brown and White: Modern-Day Segregation, School Reform, and School Ratings

• In Event: 31.068 - English Language Learners as Characters in a Russian Novel: School Finance and Policy

Abstract

Using a case study research design, we examined modern day school segregation in the Denver Public Schools and explored the relationship between school segregation of ethnic, linguistic and socio-economic groups and school performance ratings (both internal and external to the district) at two points in time (2008 and 2012). Since 2005, all schools have been mandated to meet the same standards via a blanket curriculum known as the Denver Plan. Using both descriptive and inferential statistics to address three research questions, we demonstrate that the Denver Plan serves to privilege white, middle class English speaking students and perpetuate White normativity even as the district has become predominately Latino and poor with large numbers of English Learners (ELs).

Authors

• Kathy Escamilla, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Susan Hopewell, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ofelia Castro Schepers, Purdue University