12th annual University of Denver
Diversity Summit on Inclusive Excellence

Thursday evening keynote

Challenging Racial Inequality in our Schools to Inspire Change

by Pedro Noguera, PhD
The Peter L Agnew Professor of Education at New York University

As a leading urban sociologist, Noguera examines how schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. What are the challenges they face in providing safe, academically rewarding environments? What is the state of race relations, racial inequality? What is the role of diversity? What is the impact of violence, parents, and school vouchers? What factors promote student achievement? Which detract from it? What is the impact of immigration and migration? A realistic, hopeful speaker, Noguera shows you the hurdles we face in providing equal education to all -- and then unveils the solutions that are already working to overcome them.

Friday morning keynote

You can't manage what you don't measure:
A look at the widening inequities between Black and Latino, and White Coloradoans

by Kathy White,
Deputy Director, The Colorado Fiscal Institute

The Losing Ground project analyzed 60 years of US Census data to uncover disturbing trends of growing inequality between Black and Latino Coloradans and their White counterparts. The project revealed widening gaps in income, educational attainment and home ownership, as well as deep disparities in health and access to justice, this despite Colorado’s rich history of early civil rights advancements. How could these trends have gone unnoticed and unaddressed for so long?

The Colorado Fiscal Institute (CFI) will attempt to answer that question by engaging the audience in a discussion of a Colorado Genuine Progress Indicator or Genuine Prosperity Index (GPI). CFI contends that these trends have gone unanswered because, like most of the nation, Colorado took its eyes off the prize and limited the conversation about social and economic progress to economic growth.