Category: achievement gap
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Understanding Equity in Education
Equity in education is often misunderstood. Frequently I hear or read about ‘equity’ in education as ensuring all students have the opportunity to go to a school that offers instruction in literacy, mathematics, technology, and all the other content areas along with advanced courses to enroll in if they so desire. While there can be…
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Eliminating Honors Classes or Raising the Bar?
Are schools eliminating honors level work and classes; or are they raising the bar for all students? There has been a flurry of news articles about school districts doing away with honors classes, especially those offered to 9th and 10th grade students as they begin their high school career. One of the most recent being…
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Institutional Racism in Full View
Systems that Marginalize People The world has watched in sorrow the video footage of the traffic stop and subsequent beating that resulted in the death of Trye Nichols, an African American man, in Memphis. The world has also observed that this heinous atrocity happened at the hands of African American police officers. How can this…
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Mental Health Supports Improve Student Achievement
Ensuring equity in our schools so that all students master rigorous standards and graduate high school college and/or career ready requires that we provide mental health supports when students need them.
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Establishing High Expectations for All Students
We communicate our lesser expectations for some students from the moment they walk in the door; before they are even tracked into our system.
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Stop Marginalizing Students Living in Poverty
Stop Marginalizing Students Who Live in Poverty Many of our students who do not graduate high school college and/or career ready are our marginalized students. Our educational systems often marginalize these students, inadvertently, when they: These are some of the ways that our educational system often marginalize students and fail to ensure that all students…
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With Equity There Are No Lessor Scholars
With Equity There Are No Lessor Scholars Isabel Wilkerson in her enlightening Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents names the eight pillars of caste systems. Number eight is “Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority.” This system raises its ugly head in our schools when our programs create lessor scholars based on how children arrive at school.…
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Equity Makes Mathematics a Gateway
Equity Makes Mathematics a Gateway: Instead of a Gatekeeper It has long been documented that high school students who succeed in the rigorous mathematics of algebra and geometry are more likely to graduate high school and complete technical and/or college course work successfully (Checkly, 2001; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2018; Rech & Harrington,…
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Without Equity There is No Common Good in Schools
Schools Cannot Provide for the Common Good Without Equity A free and thorough education is critical for maintaining our democracy as well as establishing a robust and healthy economy. It is essential for a vibrant and healthy nation. These factors have been driving forces behind the belief that public schools are a common good (Hussian,…
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Another view: Addressing the teacher shortage.
Is There Really a Teacher Shortage? Some Perspective and a “Challenge” The Education Trust is a long time advocate for equity in our schools. They have issued a challenge to state governments and school districts on how they are addressing the shortage. Their challenge is based on identifying a true solution that ensures our students…