Achievement Gaps Persist Between White and Latino Students in Colorado. Bilingual Education Could Help.

(CARBONDALE, Colo.) —  Student test scores in Colorado have started to improve post-pandemic, but significant achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups persist. 

White and Hispanic students make up the vast majority of Colorado’s student body. In 2025, 57.7% of white public school students in third through eighth grade met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success test — more than double the percentage of Hispanic students who reached this milestone. Similar disparities exist in math and other subjects. 

In one school district in western Colorado, the ongoing issue has led to increasing frustration among Latino families, who regularly attend board meetings to demand their schools serve students more equitably.

‘Failing to solve the problem’
Alex Sanchez, president and CEO of Latino advocacy nonprofit Voces Unidas de las Montañas, has been leading an effort to propel the Roaring Fork School District Board into action for years. The achievement gap between white and Hispanic students here is even more pronounced than the statewide average in some subjects.

“For decades, district leaders have promised to shrink a 40-point gap  with their brand new strategic plans or reforms,” said Sánchez in a September blog post. “Today, the gap is still at 40 points. That is not progress — that is failing to solve the problem.”

There’s no single strategy to address this widening achievement gap, and it often requires a holistic approach to staffing and curriculum. But the method of language instruction can also play a big role, and dual-language programs show a lot of promise.

In a guest column for the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Roaring Fork Schools Superintendent Anna Cole wrote, “It is important to note that racial comparisons are incomplete without also considering language status. Nearly half of RFSD students who identify as Hispanic or Latino are also emerging bilingual learners currently receiving English language development instructional services.”

“[D]ata shows that students who are in dual-language [programs] have the best long-term academic success.”

By targeting the needs of English-language learners, many Latino students can benefit. 

Dual-language programs show promise
Amy Fairbanks, the school district’s director of culturally and linguistically diverse education, recently gave a presentation to the school board — a progress report on how different schools were implementing language models in their classrooms. 

Depending on a school’s student demographics, Fairbanks recommends different programs. 

At Basalt Elementary School, roughly 57% of students have a primary home language other than English — mostly Spanish — with varying levels of English proficiency. Fairbanks thinks this is a great balance for a dual-language program where students remain together in the same classrooms, not divided up by home language, and are taught in both English and Spanish. 

“We know that data shows that students who are in dual-language [programs] have the best long-term academic success,” Fairbanks said. “And so I would expect students who have been in a dual-language program from kindergarten through eighth grade consistently to be performing at or above national norms.”

A study published in the Bilingual Research Journal in 2013 found that dual-language programs can yield better academic results for all students, regardless of their native language, by comparing elementary school test scores. 

But Fairbanks is clear that dual-language programs aren’t a good fit for every school. Teachers have to be trained properly, and families have to believe in the program and prioritize dual-language instruction. 

“What are the values and beliefs of the community?” Fairbanks said. “Because if there isn’t support for that, it won’t hold. It won’t be as successful.”

When those conditions are met, the Roaring Fork School District Board of Education agreed that dual-language programs are the best model for improving overall academic success. In a resolution passed on Nov. 12, the board committed to expand dual-language offerings whenever feasible, and to promote other evidence-based language programs when it’s not. 

Fairbanks said the resolution isn’t anything new, but it’s a “statement of equity for emerging bilingual students.”

Additional data analysis needed
To further understand how dual-language programs affect students in the Roaring Fork School District, Fairbanks has also asked the district for funding to help parse through achievement data. 

When students change schools, they often enter into a language program midway. If they leave a dual-language program, that progress is interrupted. Fairbanks said that makes it difficult to quantify how well a program is working. 

“When I look at [Colorado Measures of Academic Success] results, I can’t attribute it to a program, because the program has changed for certain students,” she said. “I can’t go back and figure out, ‘Well, what was that student’s experience in programming from kindergarten through 12th grade.’”

Several board members, Superintendent Cole, and Sanchez from Voces Unidas all supported Fairbanks’ effort to collect more data, but emphasized that it should not delay or distract the district from implementing other policies and programs to address the achievement gap in the meantime. 

Fairbanks identified several schools in the district that meet the criteria for a successful dual-language program, and board members want to find ways in the future to help administrators transition to these models more quickly.