DENVER — Almost all of the 25 schools that could face closure for poor performance under a new Denver Public Schools policy disproportionately enroll students of color and children from lower-income families, according to a Denver Post analysis of state data.

The schools failed to meet state expectations on standardized tests, academic growth and preparing students for life after high school, earning them a spot on Colorado’s Accountability Clock.

Sixteen of the Denver schools have spent two or more years on the clock, meaning they are ticking toward state intervention, or, in the case of Abraham Lincoln High School, already there.

“It’s a call to action, as a system, that we need to be doing better in supporting our communities, especially our communities of color, our language learners,” said Joe Amundsen, DPS’s executive director of school transformation.

Under DPS’s new policy — called the School Transformation Process — district leaders will consider shutting down a school once it has spent four years on the Accountability Clock. DPS officials have said the goal is to reverse poor-performing schools before they reach closure or state intervention by shaking up the building’s staff and operations.

But DPS has long faced criticism for past policies of closing and restarting schools, which pupils, parents and community members said displaced students of color.

“It’s another tool to close down our schools where the students are black and brown,” said Milo Marquez, chair of the Latino Education Coalition, about DPS’s new policy.

The district’s most recent round of school closures occurred this year, but the decision was made because of declining K-12 enrollment. Like the schools on the Accountability Clock, most of the buildings that were consolidated because enrollment served a majority of students and children from lower-income families.

“We do have to close schools for financial reasons and for academic reasons,” said Theresa Peña, a former member of the Latino Education Coalition and a previous DPS board member.

But, she said, “There has been a history of things being done to the community,” rather than with them.

As part of the district’s efforts to turn around schools, DPS has created the Elevate Schools Network. Elevate will have eight low-performing schools that DPS will work with to improve so that they are no longer on the Accountability Clock.

“If we’re able to be successful in these schools, community will be engaged in the improvement, staff will feel a sense of support,” Amundsen said. “…This is us as a district saying we are putting resources and support in these schools to ensure really strong instructional systems are in place.”

‘We need to do something different’

The 25 DPS schools on the Accountability Clock are both big and small. Their main similarity to the seven schools closed for low enrollment this year is who’s in the classroom.

DPS is the state’s largest school district and among Colorado’s most diverse, although gentrification throughout Denver’s neighborhoods is making classrooms whiter and more affluent.

At DPS, 75% of the 90,450 pupils are students of color, and about 63% qualify for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty.

Twenty-three of the schools on the Accountability Clock enroll a higher percentage of students of color and children from lower-income families than the district does, according to data from the Colorado Department of Education.

At the two other schools — Columbine Elementary and Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont — children of color still make up a majority of the student population, even though the percentage is below the district’s, data showed.

“This is what happens when kids go to segregated schools,” Peña said.

The state education department rates schools based on various metrics that fall into three broader categories: academic achievement, academic growth, and postsecondary and workforce readiness. Schools receive points on metrics ranging from Colorado Measures of Academic Success — or CMAS — scores to their graduation rates.

If a school receives a “turnaround” rating (which is red) or “priority improvement” (which is orange), then they are considered to be on the Accountability Clock. Schools are only allowed to receive low ratings for five years in a row before the state steps in.

Abraham Lincoln High, which is in its seventh year on the clock, had some of the lowest PSAT and CMAS scores in Colorado. But there was also a bright spot: the school saw English language proficiency grow among multilingual learners, according to the state’s rating.

“We need to do something different to support the students in the schools and recognize they need additional support,” Denver school board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa said. “…I am always concerned when our students are not doing the best that they can — that there’s something where we’re not helping them reach their potential.”

Three of the schools that closed this year for low enrollment were on the state’s Accountability Clock for poor performance before they shut down. A fourth, Castro Elementary, was initially on the clock in 2024 but was removed after the state adjusted the school’s rating.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has said small schools receive less money and resources because funding is based on the number of children in the classroom. This means it is more difficult for a small school to hire enough counselors or interventionists to help students struggling in math or reading.

“We don’t support more school closures,” said Marquez, of the Latino Education Coalition. “But we also understand that it’s based on per-pupil funding. We need to find a way to fix that.”

What can lead to a school’s low rating

Schools’ academic performance can drop low enough that they earn a red or orange rating from the state education department for many reasons, Amundsen said.

“Most of the time with just focus and support, the schools get off (the clock),” he said. “…It’s really when these schools continue to see year-over-year low performance that this becomes a problem.“

Schools with persistent poor performance typically have staff turnover and struggle to find substitute teachers — a sign that there’s a deeper problem within the building’s culture, Amundsen said.

“We really know that after five years of low performance, we don’t want to have a student have that experience,” he said. “…They’re not in a school that’s getting support from the school district at the level they should.”

De La Rosa, the school board vice president, pointed out that several of the schools on the clock or that recently have closed for low enrollment have also borne the brunt of issues affecting not just DPS, but the city as a whole.

For example, Columbian Elementary, which closed this year and was on the clock, is based in northwest Denver, where gentrification and high housing costs have reduced the number of children living in the region. Columbian was supposed to have an arts-focused curriculum, but couldn’t afford to do so because of low enrollment, De La Rosa said.

Cheltenham Elementary, which is in its second year on the clock, received students from Fairview Elementary after the school board closed it in 2023 because of low enrollment. The Sun Valley neighborhood fought Fairview’s closure, and not every family wanted to attend Cheltenham, De La Rosa said.

Then there’s Place Bridge Academy and Ashley Elementary School, which are both in their first year on the clock and have been on the frontlines of Denver’s migrant crisis.

DPS has taken in more than 4,000 immigrant students since 2023, and many of the children had their education interrupted on their journey to the city, are struggling with trauma and are now living under the threat of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, De La Rosa said.

“We have to really take a deeper look, a deeper dive at what is happening in a school building,” she said. “…We want to get ahead of the state having to take over a school and get ahead of recognizing that these are schools that need additional support.”

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