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Learn more about Colorado’s history at tinyurl.com/keyeshistory.
BACKGROUND
A landmark school desegregation case, Keyes v. School District No. 1 (1973), originated in the Denver Public Schools. Keyes was the first school desegregation case involving “a major city outside of the South” to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Keyes required the Court to formulate constitutional principles that applied outside of the Southern context. Keyes was important for a number of reasons. For example, it led to the creation of a presumption that segregative acts in one part of a district implied discrimination across the district. In Keyes, the Justices also wrestled with the de facto/de jure distinction. Keyes is discussed alongside other school desegregation cases here.
Denver Public Schools was released from the Keyes court order in 1995, and integration ceased to be a priority for the district for several decades. It appeared to be re-emerging in 2017 via the district’s Strengthening Neighborhoods Initiative, which currently seems to be halted.
In recent years, reporters have covered stories about integration in other parts of the state, noting that Mexican Americans in Southern Colorado Fought One of the Nation’s Early School Desegregation Battles (discussing the 1914 Maestas decision, the earliest known U.S. school desegregation case involving Latino students, which predates California’s better-known Mendez decision). Another article, The changing face of school integration, explored integration in the context of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
MEDIA
- Glenwood Springs, CO – The changing face of school integration (Sept. 12, 2019)
- Alamosa, CO – Mexican Americans in Southern Colorado Fought One of the Nation’s Early School Desegregation Battles (Feb. 24, 2020)
- Denver, CO – More than half of Denver’s public schools are segregated, 25 years after busing ended (Sept. 8, 2019)
- Denver, CO – The Legacy of Denver’s Forced School Busing Era (June 2018)
- Denver, CO – Denver wants more affluent schools to prioritize enrolling poor students (Jan. 23, 2018)
- Denver, CO – Denver area schools continue to battle segregation and related issues (June 19, 2017)
- Denver, CO – Denver Wants to Take Control of Gentrification’s Impact on Schools (June 7, 2017)
- Denver, CO – Gentrification is changing Denver’s schools. This initiative aims to do something about it. (June 5, 2017)
- Denver, CO – Colorado’s charter schools: more diverse, more segregated (July 25, 2016)
- Denver, CO – Standing in the Gap: A 4 part series on Race and the achievement gap in Denver Public Schools produced by Rocky Mountain PBS (2005) — Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
POLICY/ADVOCACY
- Strengthening Neighborhoods Initiative (Denver Public Schools)
OTHER RESOURCES
- Learn Together, Live Together (A+ Colorado, Feb. 2018)
- Elevating Equity: A Vibrant Future for All Colorado Kids (Colorado Children’s Campaign, 2017)
- Integrating schools in a gentrifying city through choice (Sept. 19, 2017)
- Fault Lines Shows the Nation’s Most Socioeconomically Segregating School District Borders (Oct. 18, 2016)
- “The data revealed a local Colorado angle: the border between the Sheridan and Littleton school district’s is the ninth most segregating border in the country.”
- Keyes 40th Anniversary Resources
- Denver University Law Review hosted “Forty Years Since Keyes v. School District No. 1: Equality of Educational Opportunity and the Legal Construction of Modern Metropolitan America,” to “highlight how and in what ways lawyers, judges, educators, policy makers, and citizens think about equality of educational opportunity in the multiracial and metropolitan areas of the United States in the twenty-first century.” (Jan. 31–Feb. 2, 2013) Volume 90, Issue 5 of the Denver Law Review features articles from the symposium.
- 40 Years Since Keyes (Feb. 4, 2013)
- You can listen to the oral argument for Keyes here via Oyez.
- An Elementary Education (Trailer) — “An insightful feature length documentary about Columbine Elementary, a school with a high Latino, low-income population in the mostly white, affluent town of Boulder, CO.” (2008)
ACTIVE NSCD MEMBERS
- Integrated Schools (podcast host Andrew Lefkowits is based in Denver, CO)
- Professor Kevin Welner, University of Colorado Boulder
- Welner, K. G. (2006). K-12 race-conscious student assignment policies: Law, social science, and diversity. Review of Educational Research, 76(3), 349-382.
- Linn, R. L., & Welner, K. G. (2007). Race-conscious policies for assigning students to schools: Social science research and the Supreme Court cases. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education.