Boulder County residents are highly educated overall. But the pursuit of strong education outcomes for all students has for decades been met with mixed results, with students from white, non-Hispanic and more educated households consistently faring better than their peers.
Much of the struggle comes from forces outside the schoolyard. Not every child gets the same start in life. About one in four children in Boulder County come from low-income families. And Latino and single, female-headed families with children are about four times more likely to live in poverty than white, non-Hispanic families with children.
Lately, however, there seems reason for hope as public education leans into its role as society’s best shot at leveling the playing field. A raft of systems-level efforts in St. Vrain Valley Schools over the past decade has started to translate into better outcomes. A renewed focus on educational equity by a new superintendent in Boulder Valley has some advocates expressing cautious optimism. And a new commitment by the state to fund full-day kindergarten has early learning advocates cheering and hoping it leads to improved quality and access to preschool.
The move to full-day, free kindergarten ushered in big changes in Boulder Valley School District, where only eight of the district’s 35 elementary schools had offered full-day kindergarten. In St. Vrain Valley, which for a decade has funded full-day kindergarten on a sliding scale, kindergarten became free for all families.
The extra kindergarten support will have a positive cascading effect on state and district budgets, making more funding available for preschool. And Gov. Jared Polis has stated that with kindergarten fully funded, his sights are now focused on improving the quality of preschool opportunities for the state’s youngest residents.
Higher grade levels are also seeing changes that include minority outreach.
St. Vrain Valley Schools has partnered with community colleges and more than 100 companies to ensure more students graduate with the hard skills necessary to compete in our rapidly changing, technology-driven industries. The efforts are starting to result in higher graduation rates, higher college completion rates after high school, higher enrollment in Advanced Placement classes and more concurrent enrollment of students in college coursework while in high school.
In Boulder Valley Schools, high school graduation rates and college completion rates have also increased significantly in recent years, especially for Latino students. Still, much work remains.
Boulder Valley Schools’ new superintendent says the community is ready to narrow the wide disparities that still exist between minority and low-income students and their peers. The district has restructured to support schools in three geographic regions — a structure adopted a decade ago by St. Vrain and an approach that Boulder Valley Superintendent Rob Anderson has been a part of in other districts where he’s worked.
Despite the improvements, concerns persist. Hundreds of Latino St. Vrain Valley students have left the district in recent years, many of them moving with their families back to Mexico. And a recent dip in third-grade reading scores has caused the district to add new summer programming targeting struggling second- and third-graders.
In higher education. community college leaders are developing a plan to reduce equity gaps. Front Range Community College in Longmont is making facility improvements, pursuing a new “guided pathways” initiative and is working closely with St. Vrain Valley Schools to offer more and more concurrent enrollment opportunities for high school students. Student diversity at The University of Colorado Boulder has increased significantly over the past decade thanks to multiple efforts to personalize and customize the learning experience for students from under-represented backgrounds.
The county’s local teachers continue to be mostly white females, making it harder for students with different backgrounds to find mentors who understand their struggles and experiences. The quality of an education depends as much on the connections forged between students and their teachers, parents and other mentors, as it does on other factors.
