Almost all of the 25 schools that could face closure for poor performance under a new Denver Public Schools policy disproportionately enroll students of color and children from lower-income families, according to a Denver Post analysis of state data.

The schools failed to meet state expectations on standardized tests, academic growth and preparing students for life after high school, earning them a spot on Colorado’s Accountability Clock.

Sixteen of the Denver schools have spent two or more years on the clock, meaning they are ticking toward state intervention, or, in the case of Abraham Lincoln High School, already there.

“It’s a call to action, as a system, that we need to be doing better in supporting our communities, especially our communities of color, our language learners,” said Joe Amundsen, DPS’s executive director of school transformation.

Under DPS’s new policy — called the School Transformation Process — district leaders will consider shutting down a school once it has spent four years on the Accountability Clock. DPS officials have said the goal is to reverse poor-performing schools before they reach closure or state intervention by shaking up the building’s staff and operations.

But DPS has long faced criticism for past policies of closing and restarting schools, which pupils, parents and community members said displaced students of color.

“It’s another tool to close down our schools where the students are black and brown,” said Milo Marquez, chair of the Latino Education Coalition, about DPS’s new policy.

The district’s most recent round of school closures occurred this year, but the decision was made because of declining K-12 enrollment. Like the schools on the Accountability Clock, most of the buildings that were consolidated because enrollment served a majority of students and children from lower-income families.

“We do have to close schools for financial reasons and for academic reasons,” said Theresa Peña, a former member of the Latino Education Coalition and a previous DPS board member. But, she said, “There has been a history of things being done to the community,” rather than with them.

As part of the district’s efforts to turn around schools, DPS has created the Elevate Schools Network. Elevate will have eight low-performing schools that DPS will work with to improve so that they are no longer on the Accountability Clock.

“If we’re able to be successful in these schools, community will be engaged in the improvement, staff will feel a sense of support,” Amundsen said. “…This is us as a district saying we are putting resources and support in these schools to ensure really strong instructional systems are in place.”