Report shows slow growth for Denver’s low-income students

Low-income students in Denver public schools have seen fewer gains than their more affluent peers, according to a new report from A-plus Denver, a local education advocacy group.

The district’s growth on the ACT has been driven by the district’s wealthier students. Affluent students saw the average ACT score grow by one point, the same as the district average. Among low-income students, however, there was no change in their average, which is well below the cut-off for college readiness.

But not all the news is bad. Denver has continued to see improved graduation rates for both low-income and more affluent students. The greatest gains have been among female Latina students.

Read below for other highlights from the report:

  • Only one in seven Denver students who go to the country’s top colleges are low-income.
  • The school district’s achievement gap between low-income and non-low-income students continues to widen. Almost twice as many affluent high school students score proficient across subjects as low-income students.
  • More low-income students are in high-performing schools than in 2009, although they still make up the bulk of students in the district’s lowest performing schools.

The full report is available here.