Some people in today’s political discourse treat equity like a dirty word.  Something to be avoided.  They claim that equity gives an unfair advantage to some people over others and therefore we must get rid of equity. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Equity is doing whatever it takes to ensure everyone reaches a common goal.  If safe and secure housing is a goal of the community, then doing whatever it takes to ensure that all people have a safe and secure place to live is acting with equity.  It does not mean that everyone’s house is the same or that if housing is your thing, that you as an individual cannot work to have a house that is safe and secure and a whole lot more. 

In education equity is critical to achieving the mandates of each state in the U.S.A.  Each state has set educational standards, in literacy, mathematics, science, etcetera, that provide clarity to educators and parents on the basic skills we expect our children to master.  These standards are the minimum. All students are expected to meet them. Some students will go far beyond the standards in science as that is their passion, or in the visual arts, or in the social sciences and so on.  However, every student is expected to meet state standards. Schools are judged by how many of their students meet the standards.

Getting each student to these state standards requires that we, as a society, have the expectation that each student be educated to this level and that we will provide each student with whatever supports are needed.  Some students will need more support than others to meet the standards. Some students will come to school hungry; we must feed them so they can focus on their learning, not their hungry stomach.  Other students will need help getting to and from school.  Some will need adequate housing so they can get adequate sleep. Some will need extra tutoring or adaptive technology to help them learn. Some will need support as they learn English while simultaneously learning science content.  And other students will need mental health support so they can focus on learning.

Most importantly, every single student needs to know they are seen to reach the standards. They must know they are valued, loved, and have a critical role to play in making our world a better place.  We show students that they are valued, loved, and important to our future by ensuring that they see themselves and their families in the materials that are used for learning. That their traditions, cultures, and religions are treated with respect.  We ensure that each student has whatever they need to master the basic standards set by their state, creating critical thinkers who analyze and synthesize the information they are learning.

When our children are provided with whatever they need to master the standards and think critically, they will make our world a better place. They will be well educated. They will have identified their core beliefs and live their life accordingly. They will not all live their lives with the same beliefs, but they will live them with respect for each other.   

Many will have found their passion and gone well beyond the standards in this area, creating new innovations and solutions for our world’s problems.  They will do all this while also being able to love and value those around despite different passions and ways of thinking and doing.  They have learned how to live humanely by watching their parents and educators who loved them, valued them, and provided them with whatever it took to master the standards.   They know that equity is critical to making our world a better place because they have lived it.

Equity unites us around common goals that we then achieve by doing whatever it takes for each individual person to achieve those goals.  Equity is acting humanely.  Equity is making our world a better place.

References:

Berman, S. and Brown, L. (2024). The call to courage: Standing up and speaking out against the assault on democracy, educators, and students in America’s schools.  Rowman and Littlefield.

Holmes, G. (2023). Equity in our schools: Ensuring marginalized students achieve at high levels.  Rowman and Littlefield.

This blog is written by Dr. GwenCarol Holmes, a long-time educator and passionate advocate for all students mastering rigorous standards.