Equity in Education

In recent years the term “equity” has become more and more prevalent, whether it’s with social issues, workplace norms, or in education. For a long time, equality was the term of choice when describing how best to serve everyone and give everyone an equal shot at success.

While equality is definitely a great goal to shoot for, equity takes it a step further and tries to address the unique traits of individuals and how that affects the way they interact with the world. Striving for equity in education is something that pretty much every educator can get behind, however, it is not exactly an easy thing to accomplish. Equity can be somewhat confusing and difficult to implement if you don’t have a clear understanding of the concept and how it applies to education.

In this article, we will dive into:

  1. The difference between equality and equity
  2. Why equity is important
  3. What equity in education means
  4. How to achieve equity in education

1. The Difference between equality and equity

For a long time equity and equality have been used relatively interchangeably. While there are many similarities between the two, understanding the differences is crucial in providing the necessary tools to help children succeed in the classroom.

Most people learned the term equality from social issues and learning that treating people equally is part of being a decent person. Equality usually can be easily applied to bigger groups, let’s take the classroom for example.

In an equal classroom, students will more or less be treated all the same. They will have the same supplies, same assignments, same amount of interaction with the teacher, and learn the same way. As you can see, this isn’t a bad standard to strive for, but it falls short in many ways.

Equity, on the other hand, strives to achieve the best possible outcome for each individual student. Equity isn’t the easy route, instead of giving every kid equal treatment, you now need to look at each student as an individual and adjust your treatment of them accordingly.

Although equity can be difficult to implement, most of the time it becomes a much better self-sustaining system in the long run. Instead of having to manage children that are struggling because they aren’t getting the support they need, you are now giving them the tools they need to be self-sufficient and understand what they need to be successful.

2. Why equity is important

Equity is important in our education system because currently children are having a wide range of experiences throughout the early education years. Things have improved in the last couple decades, but there are still plenty of children that end up having a negative educational experience that evolves into struggles later on in life.

Throughout our school system, you are likely to find kids in the same classroom say things like:

  • “I love my teacher, have lots of friends, and have been getting good grades”
  • “My teacher is out to get me and I’m always in trouble”
  • “School is too easy and I get bored”
  • “I get frustrated when I don’t understand new things but all the other kids do” 

The tragic part is how these experiences stick with children as the grow older. If a child is made to believe that they are just “slow” and aren’t good at school, they can grow up believing they are stupid, inadequate, and aren’t able to achieve as much as their peers.

When we strive for equity in education we aren’t just helping children learn their multiplication tables, we are helping them build self-confidence and become productive members of society.

3. What Equity in Education Means

It’s pretty easy for most educators to get behind the idea of equity in the classroom. It is not as easy for them to come up with tangible ways to effectively implement it into their own classroom. Most teachers are already underpaid and overworked, adding more to their plate doesn’t usually produce an enthusiastic response.

However, there are plenty of ways you can move towards the ideal of an equitable classroom, without a massive increase in time and workload. Equitable is similar to the term “perfect”, you are never going to get to a point where your classroom is 100% equitable. The goal here is to make your classroom more equitable than it was before, and keep striving to be better as time goes on.

4. How to achieve equity in education

As previously mentioned, you are never going to have a perfectly equitable classroom. There will always be something to address that can move the needle more in the equitable direction.

Follow these steps to make your classroom more equitable:

Acknowledge & address the problem

Taking an honest look at your classroom and students to identify what can be improved is the first step towards achieving a more equitable classroom.

Some questions you can ask yourself to find these issues include:

  • What students are struggling and why?
  • Am I teaching in a variety of ways that students can choose what is best for them?
  • How are my resources being used and distributed?
  • What is working for some kids and how can that be applied to others that are struggling?

Increase access and remove barriers to resources

For low-income families, a lack of access to resources can be crippling for their child’s education. The lack of access can come from a number of things, such as affordability or not being aware that the resources are available in the first place.

Children should have access to the resources they need regardless of their socio-economic background. If you can’t provide these resources, look to support from volunteer parents, administration, or the school board to help provide these crucial resources.

Establish an inclusive environment

Having a classroom environment where students feel welcome, safe, and able to share their thoughts is a great way to have an equitable classroom. Early education shapes children in more ways than just academically, they are constantly learning how to interact with others and be a part of a community.

When children are in an inclusive environment with different viewpoints and ideas from their own, they will learn how to communicate, problem solve, and treat others with respect. Communicating your rules and expectations for an inclusive environment from day one is crucially important. This will be an ongoing process that you will need to continually put effort towards, but the payoff is a thriving social ecosystem for your students.

Provide an engaging curriculum for all students

Within the same curriculum, some students might be dying of boredom while others are fighting every day just to keep up with the rest of the class. You don’t need to have a different curriculum for each student, but you need to have ways to keep each kid engaged and learning.

One of the best ways to achieve this is to implement project-based learning and real-life scenarios that children can apply their knowledge towards. Quite often, these projects are reserved for gifted and talented or honors courses. Breaking down this barrier and allowing every child a chance at a curriculum that challenges and engages them is a great step in the direction of an equitable classroom.

Technology

The COVID-19 pandemic has put an emphasis on how important technology is for our education system. Most schools had to go online this past year and did their best to distribute things such as tablets or laptops to ensure children could still communicate with their teacher, learn, and do their work.

However, ensuring every student gets a tablet is equal, not equitable. Some children don’t have internet at their home which limits them greatly compared to the rest of their class. 

There isn’t always a clear and easy solution to technology problems. For the families without internet, schools have sent home mobile hotspots to provide internet, but those sometimes don’t work and can be expensive.

Again, if you are unable to provide equitable technology to your classroom, call on others to support you in your mission to provide an equitable learning experience for all your students.

Home life

A child’s home life is another giant factor to their success in the classroom. This is another area that has been more prominent with the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents have been called on to be part-time teachers for their children when they are unable to attend school in-person.

Obviously, every home situation is vastly different. Some parents work full-time, are a 1-parent household, or don’t have the time to assist their children in their learning. When this is the case, you need to reach out to these parents, and possibly your administration, to come up with a plan to support these children. This can be anything from volunteer parents, tutors, or extra 1-on-1 time with the teacher or a staff member.

Even during normal times, you need to take a look at home life to ensure your students are getting the proper support they need. Some things to be aware of:

  • Lack of financial support
  • Lack of nutrition
  • Abuse in the home
  • Inability to get child to and from school

     

What Brothers Academy does to address Education Inequity

Unfortunately, equity in education is not seen in most schools. In addressing education inequity, BROTHERS Academy creates a safe environment stood up by a bond of brotherhood where students are encouraged to share their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. In the same spirit, they are encouraged and supported in sharing and addressing their struggles, hindrances, and roadblocks that make it difficult for them to pursue their ultimate goals. 

Through programming, community, and coalition of resources, BROTHERS Academy is able to serve as a platform for students to be emboldened to grow, encouraged in brotherhood and equipped to make a difference in their own communities. We’ve found that inspiring them to help others enables them to address and overcome obstacles in their own lives. 

BROTHERS Academy offers its participants an array of incentives – and a set of challenges – to help each student stretch, grow, and thrive. The program includes:

  • college planning and a tour of college campuses
  • academic encouragement and a requirement to “check in”
  • exposure to career paths and guidance from visiting professionals
  • a dress code – and the gift of clothing, if needed, to live up to it
  • requirements to do community service
  • physical training programs and access to counseling